Ireland Day 6: Derry to Straffan, via Ulster Folk Park and Newgrange

We woke up early this morning because I wanted to walk the Walls of Derry, and this was our last day here.  Derry is the last walled in city in Ireland - the city is entirely surround by a stone wall that was built during the period 1613-1619.  Derry was the location where Bloody Sunday occurred.  Derry is officially named Londonderry, but you have to be care what you call it depending on who you are talking to.  The nationalists (mostly Catholics) call it Derry.  Neighborhoods in the city are still divided by religion - there are Catholic streets and Protestant streets - there is even a place where the Catholic part and Protestant part is divided by a huge, tall wall with barbed wire on the top.  Many disputes and civil rights marches took place in Derry during the Troubles.  The Catholics were discriminated against, politically and economically.  Like in Belfast, you can see all of this by driving around the city.  It is amazing how recent all of this history is here, and how strongly people still feel.  (In case you can't read it, the writing on the red hand below says "IRA.")

In any event, we walked the Walls around Derry in the morning.  It wasn't super early - probably around 8:00 or 8:30, but no one was out yet and we practically had the place to ourselves.  As we started walking the wall, I heard someone whistling and saw a guy working in the street, carrying boxes into a restaurant or shop or something.  It was such a happy, cheery sound.  I'll never forget it.  I think people are just happier there.

The Walls are really cool - there are several cannons pointing out of the walls and the views back into the city were nice.

 

While walking on the Walls we came across St. Columb's Cathedral  - an absolutely beautiful church built between 1628 and 1633.  

 

 

 Very beautiful - definitely worth getting up early to walk the Walls.

We left Derry and headed toward Ulster American Folk Park, located in Castletown, just outside Omagh, in County Tyrone.  Ulster American Folk Park is a museum about the Irish immigrating to America in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  It was pretty interesting.  There is a bunch of stuff inside, and outside there are many original buildings, such as jails, printing presses, school houses, and cottages.  Employees are dressed up in historically accurate clothing and teach you about life in that time period when you go to the different buildings, including having samples of food that would have been eaten.  I didn't take a lot of pictures because it was pouring rain when we were there.  I did take this one of a couple of black and white horses that I really like though:

We left Ulster American Folk Park and headed to Newgrange.  Newgrange is pretty crazy.  They don't really know a lot about it for sure.  It is a prehistoric monument located in County Meath.  They think it was built around 3200 BC. They think it may have been used as a burial because they have found burned human bone in there.  It is a huge mound of earth and stone with a very narrow passageway that leads back into a a cross-shaped area with three small chambers that form the shape of a cross.  Above the door is a slot that allows sunlight to reach back into the chamber only during the Winter Solstice (around December 21). Pretty crazy!  No daylight reaches into the tomb at any other time.  They re-create this with artificial light while you are in there.  Each year they have a lottery to see who is going to get to be in there during Winter Solstice to see the phenomenon.  Also, there are several Neolithic carvings in the rock, inside and out.  You are not allowed to take pictures inside, but here are some pictures of the outside.  You can see some of the carvings and the slot above the door that lets the light in.  There are several other mounds and stone structures around the main structure - they don't know what they were used for.

We left Newgrange and headed to Barberstown Castle in Straffan, County Kildare, where we were going to stay the night.  Yep - we're staying the night in a castle!!! Barberstown Castle was built in 1288.  It was once owned by Eric Clapton!  I was a little bit disappointed when we got there because there was only one room actually in the castle, and we didn't get to stay in it.  The rest of the hotel is actually built onto the castle.  We went into the castle while we were there though and it was really cool - dark stone walls, all cold and gloomy like you expect a castle to look like.  It was a pretty fancy place.

This is the view from our bedroom window.

It looked just like the gardens I imagine all the people in my favorite books to walk in with their loves - like Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky, or Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.

Tomorrow, it's off to Dublin!!