Day 20 And Day 21
Day 20 Today was a laid back kinda day for us. We were up in good time, had breakfast and did school but in the afternoon we were itching to go somewhere; so Mom too us to see Michelstown Cave. When we arrived we had just got there in time to catch the last tour of the day. After walking a little ways we arrived at the cave entrance, there was a single door into the rocks and a big board telling us a bit about the cave. No pictures were allowed inside the cave, so as you can guess we don’t have any, other than the two photographs of two photographs that we took off the sign out front. The pictures that are in this blog post are from the internet. I will now attempt to describe it as much as I can remember, with a little help from the web.
A little history about the cave; The cave was discovered in 1833 by Michael Condon when he dropped his crowbar into a crevice while quarrying for limestone. Condon’s crowbar had slipped between some rocks and after moving some boulders in an attempt to get it back, he found the cave and its many chambers and passages. Totaling 3km in length, candlelight tours of the cave ran for 100 years until 1972 when the Condon family who own the land installed electricity inside it. Steps were installed seven years earlier. It was the first cave in Ireland to be set up for public visits. In the present, it’s now run by family member, John English. We walked in the door and down 88 steps about 200ft below ground to where the cave bottom is. As we went down it smelled more and more like a damp, musty, watery cave. The temperature, 12 degrees, was a lot cooler then outside. As we walk through the cave, our leader was telling us how this caved formed. It was formed by a river that used to run through where we were walking. After a little walking we came to a open area, where there was a stage and there were chairs pilled up in a corner. They have concerts down there and the sound is beautiful, as we found out. They asked us (Mom, Jack, Bria, Landon, and I) to sing a song. We sang Amazing Grace and the sound bounced through the entire cave! It was energizing and thrilling to be able to do that, because in most of the other caves we were to be quiet. At one spot behind the stage is a really interesting formation that they call the “harp”. It looked like rippling tubes hanging. They let us tap it with our finger nails to hear the sound echo through the ‘harp’.
Also behind the stage was an opening that was closed off and we were told that way back in the beginning when they first started giving tours, that opening leads on to the rest of the cave and every tour given, the tour guide had to carry the tourists down through that hole on their shoulders. But they don’t do that any more because it gets too narrow and low. Near the stage was a sparkling ‘frozen’ cascade from the continued dripping of water over the years. It sparkled in the light like ice and had a little hole in the top where the water drop hits.
Day 21 Dad was with us and we headed 2 hours north to Dublin for the day. We were headed there for a Sandeman Walking Tour at 11am, I think. The walking tour was 2 hours long, our guide took us to all he could in that amount of time. One place that I found fascinating was a huge lawn of prefect green grass with an enormous celtic design formed with small bricks. The paths were about 10 - 12 inches wide. It is used as a helicopter landing pad for visiting dignitaries, like the Queen of England. Most of the time it is used as a park for relaxing or have a picnic lunch. It was a very nice day for the walking tour with the sun out and a little breeze.
In the middle of the walking tour they always have a 15 - 20 min break. And in that break you can go anywhere you want but then be back in time. Most people found food and drinks. Dad got us a really good bar-like dessert. We forgot to take a picture, so I went on line and found a picture of what it looked like. It is called Chocolate Carmel Shortbread.
After the walking tour we headed back to the car and drove to see Newgrange. We walked back through a little woods and over a creek and got a bus. They drove us the rest of the way there. When we arrived we got a tour of the place. Here is a little history about it; Newgrange is a 5,200 year old passage tomb located in the Boyne Valley, Ireland. Newgrange was built by Stone Age farmers, the mound is 279 feet in diameter and 45 feet high, an area of about 1 acre. A passage measuring 19 meters (21 yards) leads into a chamber with 3 alcoves. The passage and chamber are aligned with the rising sun at the Winter Solstice. The longest night and the shortest day of the year. The window that the sunlight comes in is above the door that we entered by. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9am. The accuracy of Newgrange as a time-telling device is remarkable when one considers that it was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids and more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge. The only way to be able to see this remarkable design in action is if you win a lottery they employ to choose the lucky few allowed admittance on that day. Every year thousands of people put their name in a box and when it comes time they pick out 10 names and whoever’s name is on those cards is allowed to come and see the sun enter the chamber. I would like to see it sometime! Newgrange is surrounded by 97 large stones called kerbstones some of which are engraved with megalithic art; the most striking is the entrance stone with it’s unique spirals and swirls. Newgrange was built with many big stones that scientists believe were from a river many miles away and how they go them there was by rolling them on logs all the way up the hill.
When we walked inside the structure we were not allowed to touch anything. In the 3 alcoves there was different things to look at. One that I remember had a carving of a 3 leaf swirled clover. After everyone had fit themselves in, the tour guide started the history about the 3 alcoves. They had lights on for you to see and at one point when the lady showed us how the sunlight comes she turned off the lights and everything was pitch black. Next she turned on a light that was in position of how the sunlight would come in, and sure enough it lit the entire place. After the tour at Newgrange we got back on the bus and rode back to the center, then found our car and drove back to the lodge.
