Belfast to Dublin

In the morning, I left the hostel and headed to Balmoral Veterinary Clinic, which is where I worked last year. I caught up with Kieren, the vet that I filled in for last year, and Mariad, one of the nurses who I worked with. The clinic and area surrounding the clinic has changed a bit since I was last there. For a start, a mobility centre has opened up next to the service station where I used to park my car. Secondly, the renovations that Kieren was having done to the inside and outside of the clinic are now complete. And thirdly, the roadworks at the roundabout which is just on the corner next to the clinic are nearing completion.

It was really nice to catch up with Kieren and Mariad, and after I had left the clinic and was on my way heading out of Belfast, I had a phonecall from Mariad offering me a place to stay above the clinic if I needed somewhere to stay for a few days (it was a shame I hadn´t called in the night before!).

On my way out of Belfast, I stopped in Bangor and visited the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. This is quite an interesting museum, and a great place to spend a sunny day, as the Folk Museum is mostly outdoors. Basically, it´s made up of lots of old buildings which have been transported from their original locations, to the museum, where they have been put together to make a central town and surrounding rural area (complete with farm animals). The transport museum was also quite enjoyable, with lots of steam engines under a huge dome roof, and examples of bicycles and cars and carts. There was also a display about The Titanic, from it´s creation in Belfast, to it sinking on it´s maiden voyage.


From Bangor, I drove down the Ards Peninsula to Portaferry, where I caught a ferry across Strangford Lough. On the otherside, I drove through Downpatrick and Newcastle. Newcastle was an attractive looking town with The Mournes as a lovely backdrop, sweeping into the sea. They have some unusual shaped lamp posts which looked a bit like viking ships, and complimented the maritime feel of the town. From here, I continued driving along the coast to Newry, where I spent the night. Again, I hadn´t organised any accommodation before arriving in the town, and after doing a few "blockies" trying to find a hotel or B&B, I parked the car and found a very flash hotel right on the Quay. Although it cost a little more than any of the other places I´d stayed during my Irish Adventure, I decided to spoil myself, as I´d spent so much time in hostel accommodation in the past couple of weeks.

I got up early the next morning and headed to Drogheda in the Boyne Valley. Just a few minutes drive from the town is the visitor centre for Brú na Bóinne, where there are several sites of Neolithic tombs. I decided to visit Newgrange. This is a passage tomb with only one entry way, above which is a box in which sunlight can get through. This tomb is aligned with the sunrise of the winter solstice, and so for about 15 minutes for five days of the year around the 22nd of December, the inside of the tomb is bathed in a glowing light.

The outside of the tomb looks like a large mound of grass, with stones on the wall on either side of the entry way. I couldn´t help but think it looks a lot like Kent and Lexene´s house, and wondered how evolved we were from Neolithic people. On the inside of the tomb, the passageway opens to a small round room. The walls are made up of huge blocks of stone, stacked one on top of the other, overlapping each other, and getting smaller towards the top. Over the top is one large stone which also overlaps the walls, and acts as a seal. Apparently, no matter how much rain they have, water never gets inside the tomb. Over the stones on the walls are some neolithic carvings (swirls and diamonds and zigzags) as well as some non-neolithic graffiti from visitors in the 1800´s.
There are a couple of "satellite" tombs not far away in some neighbouring fields which have not yet been excavated, which also resemble small hills. It is unsure exactly what the tombs were used for, but they think that they were quite important in ceremonies and rituals and were perhaps used as a temporary place to house the dead, before they were moved to other, smaller tombs.

After my tour of the tomb, I called at The Hill of Tara, before heading back to Dublin.I thought I had my way back to the car hire place all planned, but unfortunately (of course) I ended up going straight ahead, where I should have veered right, and I ended up doing a huge loop of the outskirts of the west side of the city, not quite sure exactly where I was or where I was going until I came back to the junction where I´d gone wrong the first time, and this time veered right. I eventually made it back to Hertz, after my 45 minute detour! Although I enjoyed driving the little Aygo around, it was a bit of a relief to return it and not have to worry about navigating for a while!

I caught a taxi to my hostel in Dublin, and had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Temple Bar. The next morning I caught a flight out of Dublin back to London.