On Friday, we got moving early for a visit to Newgrange, or as the whole experience is called, Bru na Boinne. The same crowd as the Howth walk on Thursday went, but this time we got a group photo!
Bru na Boyne is a group of Neolithic mound sites north of Dublin. The three excavated sites are Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange. Fun fact, Knowth and Dowth have the vowel sound as in ‘ouch’ which is really hard when you’re used to saying ‘Howth’ as in ‘snow-th’. The tour starts at the visitors center, where there were some very cool paintings displayed, inspired by the Neolithic art on site.
Buses take visitors around the locations, and we visited Knowth first, with an excellent explanation of the site and area by an OPW employee. We walked around the main mound and saw other satellite mounds.
We then took the bus to Newgrange where the talking part of the tour took place inside the chamber of the mound. The guide there was also excellent. Shout out to the OPW for 3 excellent guides I had on tours during this trip!
We got back to Dublin in time to pack up and refresh a bit before the start of Kennyfest at Barry and Frankie’s they put on an amazing spread as usual, with Barry barbecuing and yummy food for all. The weather was really great and we ate outside in their back garden. No photos of all the merriment unfortunately, but we did take some group shots. Note that Isabelle, Liam and Miles were very much missed!
Our flight on Saturday ended up being delayed several hours so we went into town and had a good time visiting the GPO museum, lunch at a cafe on Cow’s Lane (mentioned in Ulysses!) then a walk around Stephen’s Green and a visit / revisit to Sweny’s pharmacy. Back to clontarf then the airport and on to Chicago – thanks all for such a lovely visit and an extra shoutout to Barry and Frankie for hosting us!
Enjoyed the photos of Bru na Boinne and the shots taken at Clontarf later.
Full marks to Barry & Frankie for the yummy food which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Great for John to catck up on visit to the city as Cindy was already there as part of
the Blooms day festival. Great trip all round.
Lovely family photos!
Interesting about the pronunciations of Knowth, Dowth, and Howth.
Lovely pics of your trip to Newgrange & the Kennyfest. Delighted ye enjoyed the BBQ, it was great we could all get together & it’s always our pleasure to have you both stay over here in Clontarf.