In the last couple weeks I have been on a couple of field trips with my Cultural Heritage Classes. First we visited Clonmacnoise a monastery that became an important economic center between the 9th and 12th centuries. The site of the monastery places it along a major east-west route: the Pilgrimage Road. The road is on top of an esker which is essentially a ridge created from the deposition of sediments during a glacial period. Other than the site of the monastery, the ridge is the only other dry land in what are the bogs of Central Ireland. The site is also located along the River Shannon, an important north-south trade route. The location of the site allowed it to become an important trade center which in turn helped it to become more wealthy. The wealth allowed for the construction of important buildings and high crosses as well as the creation of one of the most important manuscripts: The Book of the Dun Cow. The weather was nice, only partly cloudy but it was awfully cold with a brutal breeze.
This past week I visited New Grange, Knowth and Dowth, 1 of only 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ireland. The sites were used for burial ceremonies in the Boyne Valley. The weather again was beautiful and not as chilly but I also learned from my mistake and wore a few more layers. At New Grange we were able to go into the tomb which was relatively small but fascinating. The passage was designed so that on the shortest day of the year the sun would shine down the passage and light up the whole tomb. At Knowth, which I thought was more spectacular than Newgrange although less popular, we were able to climb through a little tunnel under one of the mounds. I also witnessed a man mowing one of the mounds with a lawn mower attached to a rope. I found this rather amusing. We weren’t able to go into the tomb but we were able to look down the passage which was rather long. There were quite a lot more mounds at Knowth. And at Dowth we ran into a friendly and attention seeking dog. I was also attacked by sheep, they might have thought that I was feeding them.
