Another trip to Ireland in the books, once again to visit our daughter, Jill, and son-in-law, Conor. Excluding travel days, we had only 5 days there, so the little bit of sight-seeing we did was limited to Co. Meath – where there is no shortage of historical sites to see – and the outcropping of Howth, in Co. Dublin.
Co. Meath is just rife with historical structures, such as Trim Castle (our kids live just outside of Trim), the Bective Abbey (photo below), the Hill of Tara (seat of Ireland’s ancient kings), and the megalithic burial mounds of Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, with the mounds dating from around 3200 BC (older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt).
Co. Meath is also home to the historic River Boyne, on which the Battle of the Boyne took place in 1690. The victory of the Protestants over the Catholics in that battle helped set the stage for sectarian differences in Ireland for centuries to come.
Howth, which serves as a suburb of Dublin, is a beautiful village with many interesting shops, a large wharf, a fascinating lighthouse, and a walkway along its cliffs with mouthwatering vistas overlooking the Irish Sea. And those are only the parts that we saw! There are some spots along that unfenced walkway that are a sheer drop many metres below, making for some very careful stepping.
This touring was over and above the main point of our visit, which was to spend time with our kids. Great to see the sights, of course, but nothing better than getting to know a foreign land than getting to spend time with people who actually live there.