DAY 16 - Omagh to Dublin 13/06/2005
In a few hours we had driven through the counties of Tyrone, Monaghan, Louth and Meath arriving at our destination Slane. We could see Slane Castle from the road; the site for the U2 concert which would set you back over NZ$500 for a ticket. In fact we went past Slane Castle a few times trying to work out Irish signposting to our next destination, the Bru Na Boinne near New Grange. The Bru Na Boinne are ancient burial mounds from 3200 BC. The tour was very well organised and informative. The countryside is greener and the people of Southern Ireland much nicer than Northern Ireland, worlds apart.
Again the poor signposting in Ireland let us down and we abandoned our search for Trim Castle and the Butterstream Gardens.
We found Tara Hill more easily and walked around what was once the seat of the most powerful rulers of Ireland. It was on Tara Hill that St Patrick supposedly used the shamrock and its three leaves to explain Christianity, hence the adoption of the shamrock as the Irish national symbol.
Our home for the night was Dublin. We arrived right on 5pm so headed straight to a campsite to avoid the traffic. The chosen campsite turned out to be more of a concentration camp where we paid double the normal fee to be told all the don’ts, charged for showers, parking and power, told no change would be given and that we couldn’t use their Internet. I guess with the gypsies around they have to have rules and strict security.
To visit Dublin by day was awkward and costly so we drove in at night and saw the sites, apparently improved by the EU affiliation; not least of all Lansdowne Road Rugby Stadium.
