Tag Blog: The Disney World of prehistoric tombs

Jacoby was feeling a little better, but the Hines decided to skip Newgrange and have a rest and recovery day.

Access to Newgrange is by guided tour only, and while it would have been cool to visit on the actual summer solstice, the tomb is actually aligned to interact with the winter solstice. Newgrange is only 7 minutes from our Airbnb, but we were still a couple minutes late for our 10:30 tour. It wasn't a big deal, though, because they build in some time to go through the visitor center before the tour begins.

In the parking lot, we were approached by an older gentleman who asked us if we had some kind of object that he could use to break his car window, because he locked his keys in the car. One of the stranger requests I've gotten in a parking lot. We did not have anything for him.

Newgrange is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built around 3200 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. The entrance, the parking lot, the visitor center, everything clearly showed how much more polished and organized Newgrange is compared to Uisneach and Hill of Tara. It's the Disney World of prehistoric tombs. Uisneach is still our bae, but Newgrange is impressive in the same way German engineering is impressive. And Hill of Tara, sorry to say, is kind of the red-headed step child (just an idiom...no offense intended to the Irish gingers).

We had three unused tickets with the Hines not coming, and while they couldn't refund them, they said we were welcome to sell them to anyone. Cristina overheard the guy at the entrance explaining to a couple that they had to have reservations, so Cristina let them know we had tickets if they wanted to go at 10:30 (when our reservation was). They were super appreciative that they got to visit Newgrange, and we were glad to get the Hine's money back for 2 of their 3 tickets. The couple was from France, and Cristina made friends with them (of course!) to the extent that they invited us to visit if we make it to France.

Bella, tired from her Dublin day, was not in the best of moods, but she soldiered on. Bella and I went pretty fast through the visitors center because we were supposed to catch the bus at a very specific time. Cristina was far behind when it was time for the bus, so I went back for her. She was practically still at the start!

We made the bus and went to the first tomb mound, then watched a video (which the Irish call a film, but they pronounce it with two syllables, like fillum.) Then we bused to the main event, the Newgrange tomb for a guided tour and a re-enactment of the Winter Solstice experience through the use of high-powered electric lights situated within the tomb. The finale of a Newgrange tour results in us standing inside the tomb where the guide then turns off the lights, and then turns on ones simulating the sunlight that would appear on the winter solstice. To experience the phenomenon on the actual morning of the Winter Solstice from inside Newgrange, visitors must enter an annual lottery. Something like 30,000 people enter the lottery and sixty are chosen each year. Winners are permitted to bring a single guest. The winners are split into groups of ten and taken in on the five days around the solstice in December when sunlight can enter the chamber, weather permitting. Can you imagine being one of the 30,000 and getting there only to have cloudy skies prevent the sun from doing its thing? To me, the simulation was just fine.

Preparing to go inside the main tomb

And like clockwork, we were bused back to the visitor center and our Newgrange tour was over. Back in the parking lot, we saw a locksmith working on the van of the guy who asked us to help him smash his window.

Newgrange was our main activity for the day. The only other thing to do was eat one last dinner in an Irish pub and pack up. Because of our early flight and expectedly long lines at Dublin airport, we had to leave the Airbnb by 3:15 am.

Cristina and I took one last trip to Tesco because she was thinking of getting some linen pants she had seen there (and what the heck, I had plenty of gas). I wore my "I Shot JR" t-shirt, hoping to get a reaction from someone before leaving Ireland. The girl in Tesco, about 20 years old, that helped Cristina didn't know what it meant. We told her it was from Father Ted (a popular Irish sitcom in the 90's). She didn't know it. Oh well. I guess the equivalent of that would be an American 20 year old not understanding a Soup Nazi reference from Seinfeld.

We had dinner at a gastropub, where Cristina finally got fish and chips. I got a Guinness pie. Bella got a veggie curry, which she asked if it had mushrooms. The server said no. But when it came, it had tons of mushrooms. But they swapped it for her for one with no mushrooms. It was a little too spicy for Bella.