One of the oldest known “windows”

Light opening (center of image) above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange.
For a few days around the winter solstice, a ray of light shines through this opening into the chamber at the end of the passage at sunrise.

May 2014

#Newgrange #PassageTomb #Boyne #SiAnBhru #CountyMeath #Ireland #Neolithic #Neolithicperiod #wintersolstice #sunrise #solstice #Irland #Neolithikum #Jungsteinzeit #passage #Wintersonnenwende #Sonnenaufgang #FensterFreitag

A Trip to Trim

This morning I took an impromptu trip to Trim, which is situated in the Boyne Valley in County Meath. There has been a small astrophysics workshop going on there this week, attended by some people I know including a couple of old friends from Nottingham, Frazer and Meghan. Trim is less than 30km from Maynooth as the crow flies. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a crow willing to offer me a lift, public transport from Maynooth to Trim is difficult, and I don’t drive, so it wasn’t easy to arrange to meet up. Fortunately this morning one of our postdocs was driving up for the morning session of the meeting so I cadged a lift and and stayed until lunch before getting a lift back to Maynooth.

It was a nice trip. An added bonus was that the workshop venue was just a few metres away from the historic Trim Castle, which was built in the early 13th Century. We had time for a quick walk around before leaving to return to Maynooth.

As you can see, it’s a standard model Norman castle. The Keep, though not entirely intact is pretty well preserved; there’s certainly a lot more left than in the case of Maynooth castle. Quite a lot of the curtain wall and the gates have survived quite well too. In order to get inside the Keep (and climb to the top) you have to take an official tour, but we didn’t have time for that.

#CountyMeath #Maynooth #Trim #TrimCastle

📷 It's Texture Tuesday! 📷

The entranceway to the Newgrange passage tomb (Neolithic Period) at Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site, County Meath, Ireland.

#CountyMeath #Ireland #Architecture #Photography #Monochrome #BlackAndWhite #Detail #Texture #FORAPhotography #TextureTuesday

This is just one of the hundreds of images available for purchase at: https://www.foraphotography.com

📷 It's Texture Tuesday! 📷

Exterior detail of the Newgrange passage tomb (Neolithic Period) at Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site, County Meath, Ireland.

#CountyMeath #Ireland #Architecture #Photography #Monochrome #BlackAndWhite #Detail #Texture #FORAPhotography #TextureTuesday

This is just one of the hundreds of images available for purchase at: https://www.foraphotography.com

Browsing the old Irish 1st series 6-inch maps around Lough Foyle came across "Corn Kiln" in the middle of Greencastle (Donegal). Looked interesting: turns out they were universal in Ireland and much of Scotland. Not sure how many are left but County Meath document 5 examples: http://www.meathheritage.com/index.php/archives/cat/kiln-corn-drying.

#NLS #CornKiln #Irish6InchMaps #CountyMeath