Boyne Valley
This weekend, the Dublin Programme took us to the Boyne Valley.
The most impressive stop by far was the Newgrange burial mound. Although it was fully excavated in the 1960s, the tomb at Newgrange is 5,000 years old. (It was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids in Egypt.) Newgrange is the oldest known example of solar alignment. When you enter the the tomb, you descend into pure blackness. But, on the winter solstice (Dec. 21), the sun aligns with a special opening (called the lightbox) and floods the tomb with light briefly. On the tour, the event is simulated using some lightbulbs. It is really amazing to think how ancient people could have constructed such an elaborate mechanism.
We also saw ancient burial mounds, the remains of ring forts, and a crumbling monastary where St. Patrick "lit the flame of Christianity" in Ireland around 432AD.