New Memories: Loughcrew and Trim

Ahhh...a truly lazy Sunday.  We slept in a bit, got big breakfast courtesy of Etina and hit the road to check out this Loughcrew we were told about.  It was only about a thirty minute drive away from where we were staying.  It turns out that it’s a site run through the office of public works and it’s NOT wheelchair accessible.

We had a nice, short hike up to the top of a hill to find a simple passage cairn we could get a free guided tour into.  It’s not a theme-park (yet?) and is still quite undiscovered by many – which made it perfect!  That’s our kinda place!  We had a lovely tour guide, Lara, who explained a bit about the passage cairns and where the sunrise hit on the interior on the vernal and autumnal equinox.  The site is actually older than the pyramids, over 4500 years old.  It’s truly amazing.  We stayed for quite a while on the site just wandering around and checking out other nearby cairns. 

Afterwards we hit the road and headed for Trim.  I’d been there before but Marnie wanted to see a castle and besides, my memory was a little foggy.  Everything was pretty much as I remembered it but it all seemed more impressive this time around.  We wanted to go into the castle so seeing as we’d just missed the 14h show, we popped into to a nearby coffee shop for a delicious lunch.  We then went back to the castle and wandered around some more before going inside – which I don’t remember doing in ’96.

Four nights out and we had reached our grease-threshold.  We stopped in the grocery store (which is always a lot of fun when travelling) to grab some grub and we took it back to the B&B to have a little picnic for dinner.  It was just right and left us some room for beer!  We headed back to the Abbey House, partly hoping to see those smiling Irish eyes again, but not before wandering around the famous abbey at sunset.  We were disappointed to miss the brothers but we weren’t disappointed by the abbey!