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May 06, 2004
Where was I....
My mother fears, above all, the dreaded round-about. I scoffed at her fear as we made our way north on the N1 toward Belfast...though we wouldn't be going into Northern Ireland. Our first priority was food.
I suggested that we stop at any village that we thought looked interesting. Traveling along the small roads we finally came across Slane, a very small village with a one-way bridge built onto a hillside. What attracted me was the facade of ruins at the top of what we now know is called The Hill of Slane. I said, let's stop here and then I want to see if we can go see those ruins on the hill.
We had breakfast at a small inn on the main street of Slane called The Conyngham Arms Hotel. The brown bread scones were absolutely to die for. I still shiver when I think of them. Milk or cream and sugar was going to become a habit for me while I was on this trip - luckily I stopped that after I got back. I felt obligated to use them because our hosts always brought them to the table. This was my first foray into the what is possibly the world's most fattening and artery clogging meal ever created. And dear God was it good. The black pudding has a distinctive, smoky taste. The white is less smoky, but seems richer. Rashers have to be the best bacon. I will never again touch a piece of American bacon....such products are a travesty to the beauty of pork meat products. Then you have a fried egg, with either mushrooms or half of a fried tomato. Don't forget the additional scones, toasts and brown breads - served, of course, with butter.
It is truly amazing that I didn't gain any weight. After our delicious breakfast I told my mom to drop me at the bottom of the hill, I wanted to take a walk. I assumed that it would take me 15-20 minutes to make the trek. Suprisingly it only took five minutes. The view from the top was amazing, but what we found was goose bump inducing.
We had no idea when we entered Slane that the ruins of an ancient cathedral and burial grounds were on the top of the hill. Even more significant was the fact that this was where Saint Patrick lit the first Easter Fire in Ireland. Every year the locals relight the fire in a small pit on the grounds. My mother and I were overcome with joy and shock.
After a brief journey of the grounds which were public access we headed to New Grange, one of the most well preserved passage graves in Europe. This was again significant for me. Since I was a child I was obsessed with spiraling patterns and would always doodle them. I had studied New Grange in my Celtic Anthropology class and was excited to be there. You can actually go into the passage grave where they simulate the light entering the tomb on Winter Solstice.
It was incredibly cold this day and after spending some time on the two hills we were ready to move on, get to Kildare and take a nap. We were exhausted. We went back to our car after warming up with some tea in the visitor center and made our way to the land of St. Brigid, Kildare.
To be Continued.....
Posted by Sarah at May 6, 2004 04:31 PM
Comments
wow... i'm speechless just hearing about it. i can hardly imagine seeing all of it... can't wait for the next part! =)
Posted by: Judy at May 7, 2004 03:27 PM