On our last day in Ireland, we headed south from Belfast back to Dublin. 

Tollymore Park was the first dedicated forest park in Northern Ireland.  The main lawns are quite manicured and not terribly natural, but down by the river is a pretty place to take a walk. 

The main trail passes by 16 bridges crossing the Shimna River.  We had just enough time for a shortened ~3km hike.

The hermitage was built by the Lord in memoriam for his friend who liked to hang out in quiet reflection. Later it became a place for the ladies to seek shade while the men were fishing.

Several different scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed in Tollymore Park: the site where the Starks (John) discover the direwolves, the woods where Ramsay hunts Theon & The Haunted Forest where the White Walkers start their march south. 

The border crossing from Northern Ireland back to the Republic of Ireland was just as easy as going north.  The GPS suddenly moved back to km/hr and there was a new county sign. Not sure why we had to buy those new electronic visas!

There are numerous Stone Age ‘buildings’ in the Boyne valley; we got a guided tour of those at Knowth and Newgrange.

Newgrange is a 5200 year-old passage tomb built by Stone-age farmers, making it older than both Stonehenge and the pyramids.  

The main mound is 13.5 meters high & 85 meters in diameter surrounded by 97 ornately carved kerbstones.

The conical roof is made of overlapping slabs of stone with a single cap stone.  The opening was originally blocked by the large stone that now stands at the entrance. 

The 19 meter passage in the centre aligns with the rising sun on the winter solstice. The sun shines through the hole in the roof over the entrance and lights up the ‘hallway’ and the burial chamber 65 feet away at the end.  We were able to get tickets online to visit today; however people must enter a lottery each year to see which few are allowed to be here on the solstice!

Newgrange was probably a Celtic place of worship and later became a burial ground for pagan kings (eg the legendary kings of Tara).  The remains of only 5 people (and three dogs) were excavated from Newgrange – three are burned cremains, the two sets of bones are currently being studied.

The site at Knowth is made up of one large burial mound with numerous smaller mounds surrounding it – there are currently 19 small mounds, but there may have been as many as 22.

There have been over 170 individuals excavated from the various burial mounds.

After a long drive day, we returned Fergus to the airport in Dublin.  We are staying at the Radisson Blu very close to the airport in order to catch our flights home tomorrow morning.