Northern Ireland
So this past weekend the girls from SMC travelled to Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland is aproximately 6 hours from Maynooth, Co. Kildare which is where i attend school. The drive up was long and very curvy….it sucked basically…But we were able to try or first Irish MacDonalds which was really exciting as it is healthier than eating at an American MacDonalds….less grease and smaller portions…our first stop in Northern Ireland was the hostel in which we stayed we arrived around 11 pm on friday night and commenced making dinner…yes we ate dinner at 11:45 pm….it was strange to say the least… our hostel was located right by the Kinora Terrace on the Causeway Coast. It provided a beautiful veiw of the ocean
Kinora Terrace
…After our hostel expierence our site seeing began… we started out by driving to Old Bushmills Distillery which still runs today. This distillary produces a single malt whiskey and other irish spirits like Balmers and Guinness. We learned all about the process of making whiskey from our grizzily adams looking tour guide…I am now regreting not taking a picture of him, as he looked like a homeless man as personal hygiene is not high on the list here in Ireland…anyway…here is brief overview of what I learned…
Old Bushmilles Distillery
Bushmills purchases barley from farmers in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is then dried and malted. They then grind the malted barley in to grist which then gets added to water in the masher and becomes mash…the mash is drained and the pulp is given to local farmers to feed cattle and the liquid is put in storage tanks with yeast to create the alcohol. It is then filtered three times to get a very high percent of alcohol. it is then watered down and placed in aging barrels to get its color and flavor. All of the barrels used at Bushmills come from different places and have been used before. After it has aged for a minimum of ten years it is then brought to teh bottling plant and bottled and marked for sale…. and this my friends is how some of the finest whiskey inthe world is created…at the end of the tour we each got to sample the whiskey and which was grand…Our next stop was Dunluce Castle.
Dunluce Castle
As you can see Dunluce was absolutely gorgeous!!! I immediately fell in love with this place…it had neat little hiding places and beautiful stone walls. I was very preoccupied by my own thoughts i forgot to listen to the tour guide as she told us the history of the Castle. I do remember though that the main par tof the Cstle was built on an island to protect its inhabitants from intruders and once it be came safe to do so the MacDonald clan added on to the Castle and built on the mainland.
I attempted to climb in...turns out that wasnt a grand idea
The castle had a kitchen in which there were two stone ovens and I attempted to climb inot one as i believed in to be a good idea at the time…needless to say I ended up hitting my head on the way in and didnt attempt to climb in anyfurther. teh other parts of the castle were great too!! many of the walls are falling apart and this gave teh Castle a sense of history and a nice homey feeling. We were able to expore the castle on our own and went up into teh lookout tower and and downteh side of the cliff to the bottom. the Castle is in the perfect setting as is borders the ocean and is on a beautiful grassy cliff.On clear days much like the saturday on which we were there you are able to see Scotland inthe distance. When we were at Dunluce Castle we were able to see the tip of Scotland
Look really really closely and you can see the briefest of lines, and that is the Coast line of Scotland
The next stop on our tour of Northern Ireland was Giant’s Causeway. There is a great myth that goes along with this landmark.Legend tells of Finn MacCool wanting to do battle with a rival giant in Scotland, known as benandonner. the 2 giants had never met, so Finn built enormous stepping stones acros the sea so that the Scottish giant could cros to Ireland to face the challenge. When Finn saw teh great bulk of Benandonner approaching, he fled home in fear and asks his wife, Oonagh, to hide him. Oonagh is said to have disguised Finn as a baby, and put him in a huge cradle. When Benandonner saw the size of the infant , he assumed the father must be gigantic indeed, and fled home in terror ripping up the causeway in case he was followed.
Giant's Causeway from the top of the hill
The Geological explanation for the Giant’s Causeway is as follows: About 60 million years ago after the dinosaurs but befor man the landscape in IReland was different. Forests grew and rivers floweed on a land made of chalk. The chalk, or white limestone, can still be seen east and west of the Giant’s Causeway. Much earlier in the Earth’s history the continents we recognize now were joined in one huge landmass called Pangaea. The Continents sit on great foundations known as plates. these plates pulled apart slowly, separating the continents. Europe and North America split apart, forming the Atlantic Ocean. Along the line of seperatioin, through deep fissures, hot magma surfaced as lava. this spread over the chalk landscape, burning forests and filling river valleys. The Giant’s Causeway is basalt, solidified lava from one of the flows that filled a river valley. It cooled and cracked, not unlike mud when a pond dries up. Unlike mud, which cracks only on teh surface, the cracking in the lava went through the depth of the flow, creating columns.
Giant Causeway, an Example of the Columns
The Causeway lava cooled and shrank, splitting apart to create a pavement-like surface and tall columns. Most have five and six sides, but some have four seven, and eight. Ther is supposed to be only one with three sides, and I did not find it but I tried! Throughout the Causeway one can find different rock shapes that are said to have specific meaning to the myth of Finn MacCool. One can find things like the camel’s back, the stepping stones, the Giant’s boot, and the organ (for pictures ofthis items see the end of the post). It was said that Finn through of his boot so he could ran faster and that he built the organ for his son to play on. Our fourth and final stop was to see a giant stone cross. Mind you this cross was not located in Northern Ireland just north of Maynooth.
Giant Cross
The cross is located in a monastery, Monasterboice, that was founded by St. Buite, who died in 521 A.D. No building of such early a date survives in the monastery. The oldest monuments are the three high crosses and the round tower all dating back to the 10th century. The Crosses belong to the scriptual group, so called becasue of the biblical scenes they depict. The round tower which must have been erected shortly after 968, was damaged by a fire in 1098. Beyond a list of Abbots little is known about the history of the monastery.
The round bell tower at Monasterboice
Ther are no records of the Viking forays, though the Vikings occupied the place for a time before they were drivenout with great slaughter in 968. With the foudnation of teh Cisterican Abbey at the Mellifont in 1142, Monasterboice fell into decay. The site was occupied by a parachial church int eh 13th century.
The Setting sun in Monasterboice
This is just a brief history lesson on Monasterboice. As we were leaving the monastery the sun was beginning to set and this created a lovely end to our eventful day.
