Newgrange

Newgrange. A megalithic passage tomb. It rather reminds me of a giant hobbit hole. From the outside at least.

Inside it's a bit different. It's cool and feels like the cave that it is. On the winter solstice the sun shines through an opening above the door and illuminates a beam through the passageway.

The light only lasts seventeen minutes. I wonder how the ancient builders figured out how to place the stones in exactly the right place.

The building of the tomb must've taken more than a generation. Do people now - in these days of instant gratification - have the patience to embark on a project like that?

Oh and by the way, that was the most yellow flowers in one place that I've ever seen in my life. And take note of the little hobbit hole in the middle of the field.

Never ending Mount Brandon

Early evening on the Dingle peninsula we decided to stop by Mount Brandon. We read the sign about the old pilgrimage trail and decided to climb part of the way though not the whole 18k. On the way we noticed a strange, whistling, wailing noise. . .

upon closer inspection it turned out to be the stone walls that were making the strange noise. We thought it was perhaps the wind blowing through cracks in the walls.

The view was really nice, but the climb... we kept saying, "let's just get to the top and then we'll turn around." But we never got to the top. There were countless little ridges that looked like they would be the top, but we would climb to one of them only to discover that the trail went on.

But this is a pilgrimage trail after all. Perhaps it was a purposeful design of the path. Even when you seem to reach the top of the mountain there is always another mountain to climb.
I hope the ancient pilgrims enjoyed it. It seemed to me that the sheep were laughing at us.