July 25 Arrive Dublin,
Monday Ireland
Drive to Sligo
Carrowmore
Céad Míle Fáilte, “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!” to Ireland. Plan to arrive in Dublin early this morning where we will begin our tour from the airport. We will discover the 40 shades of green as we drive along the Irish countryside to Sligo, which will be our home for the next five days. We will arrive in Sligo early afternoon and check-in at our hotel for a short rest.

Then, we’re off to Carrowmore, just outside Sligo on the Cúil Irra peninsula, where we’ll be met by our guide for our time in Ireland, Martin Byrne. Carrowmore is one of the largest and oldest groups of ancient monuments in Western Europe. The oldest date recovered so far from Carrowmore is 5,400 BCE, an extremely early date. The monuments have been described as boulder circles: stone circles of gneiss boulders with a dolmen at the center. Twenty-five of them remain relatively intact.

The ancient people chose a dramatic landscape for their monuments. The Cúil Irra peninsula is bounded by Sligo Bay to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and Ballisodare Bay to the south. Carrowmore is also surrounded by hills and mountains: Knocknarea to the west, the Ox Mountains to the south, Cairns Hill to the east and the Benbulben/Kings Mountain range to the northwest. Return to the hotel and retire for a good night’s rest.

***Sligo City Hotel

July 26 Carrowkeel
Tuesday Heapstown
Moytura
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today we go to several sites in South Sligo, in the area of Lough Arrow, one of the most scenic and unspoiled areas remaining in the country. We start with the cairns at Carrowkeel. Perhaps one of the least known of Ireland’s ancient sites, but without doubt the most spectacularly situated, Carrowkeel is a large group of megalithic monuments sited on the highest parts of the northern ends of the Bricklieve Mountains, and they can best be described as artificial caves. The number of monuments visible from here shows the intensity of monument building in the Sligo area. Some of the monuments still have intact roofing, and you will be able to go inside and experience the characteristic structure of Irish passage cairns. You may also experience the energy that some people report feeling there.

We will have time for lunch in Ballymote where one of the great medieval Irish manuscripts, the Book of Ballymote, was written. It’s a small town with a lot of history. We will also stop at the castle which played a role in the 16th Century wars of the northern Irish Chieftains against the English.

We then head to Moytura, the scene of the legendary Second Battle of Moytura between the Tuatha Dé Danaan and the Fomorians, the dark people of the sea. This is a splendid example of Dindseanchas, the old Irish tradition of seeing stories in the land. We will visit Heapstown Cairn, one of the largest passage cairns in Ireland, which itself plays a part in the Moytura story.

Return to the hotel, after which we will have our Welcome Dinner, and get better acquainted with our traveling companions.

(B-D) ***Sligo City Hotel

July 27 Céide Fields
Wednesday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today we travel along the northern coast of Mayo, following Donegal Bay out to the open ocean, and visit the Céide Fields. The farmers who built these fields lived over five millennia ago. The lack of defensive walls shows that this community of several hundred families lived in peace. The onset of peat (bog) made the land unsuitable for farming, but it preserved the remains of stone field walls, houses and megalithic tombs. Today these remains tell the story of the everyday lives of the farming people who built the megalithic monuments that are the focus of our tour. At the excellent visitor’s center, learn how these walls were discovered by modern farmers cutting peat for fuel, and see how archaeologists imagine these ancient people lived.

We will also visit some of the megalithic monuments that these people built. On the way, we will stop at other monuments from Ireland’s long spiritual history, including a very well preserved round tower in Killala, the remnant of a Celtic Christian monastery. Return to the hotel this evening and dine on your own or join Jo to try a local restaurant.

(B) ***Sligo City Hotel

July 28 Free Day in Sligo
Thursday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today is a day to rest, to explore on your own or shop. Sligo is a great walker’s town. There are medieval abbeys and castles, museums, book stores, craft shops, art shops, coffee houses and restaurants. You may also choose to take one of the locally run tours. This area provided much inspiration to Yeats, and he is remembered and celebrated here, not least in the Hawkswell Theater named for one of his plays. You may want to attend one of its very reasonably priced productions. The isle of Innisfree, celebrated in his most famous poem, is in nearby Lough Gill.

There’s wonderful music (traditional and otherwise), in the many local pubs. Sligo is also home to Michael Quirke, artist and storyteller. His butcher store turned woodworking shop, where he works out his own understanding of the ancient Irish myths in wood and words, is well worth a visit.

(B) ***Sligo City Hotel

July 29 Creevykeel
Friday Knocknarea
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. This morning we will head north a short way to Creevykeel, an excavated cairn which provides perhaps the best example of court cairn architecture in Ireland. On the way, we’ll stop in Drumcliffe, which has interesting associations with Irish writing. It is best known today as the burial place of William Butler Yeats, but it is also the scene of the sixth century battle between Saint Colmcille (Columba) and the high king of Ireland over a book. A high cross and ruined round tower remain from Colmcille’s monastery.

In the afternoon, we will climb to Maeve’s cairn on Knocknarea. Maeve is the legendary warrior-queen of Connacht, and according to some stories, she stands in her cairn, in full armor facing her enemies. Knocknarea is the most prominent mountain in North Sligo, apart from the majestic Benbulben. Unexcavated, Maeve’s cairn keeps its mysteries, but it is clearly a focal point for the many other monuments in the area that are visible from it. It is guarded at the north and south by enormous stones, where people have begun the custom of leaving offerings to Maeve. Perhaps you will feel moved and leave your own. Return to the hotel for dinner.

(B-D) ***Sligo City Hotel

July 30 Loughcrew
Saturday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today we drive to County Meath, Royal Meath, spiritual and political center of Ireland for many centuries. Our first stop will be Carnbane east in Sliabh na Caillí, “The Mountain of the Old Woman,” one of the hills in the Loughcrew complex. Legend has it that the cairns on these hills were formed from stones dropped by an Old Woman as she hopped from one hill to another. The feminine nature of this site is further attested by the stories attached to a prominent stone in the kerb of Cairn T that has the shape of a huge chair. It is said to be the seat where Queen Tailte or Queen Maeve gave judgment. This is one of Ireland’s most spectacular sites, rich with early megalithic art. Such art is almost non-existent in the monuments we have been visiting in the west, so this will be our first chance to see significant examples of megalithic rock art. The Loughcrew monuments also have astronomical orientations. For example, on the equinoxes, the sun shines into Cairn T on Carnbane east. Check in to the hotel in Navan for dinner.

(B-D) ***Newgrange Hotel

July 31 Glendalough
Sunday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today, we go south to the Wicklow Mountains to visit Glendalough, one of the great centers of monasticism in early medieval Ireland. Glendalough means ‘glen of the two lakes’ and is associated with St. Kevin, one of Ireland’s best loved saints. Like many holy men and women from this period, Kevin’s path to his God was through nature. According to legend, an angel told him to become a priest and then go live as a hermit in the wilds of Glendalough. Later, others joined him, and thus began the monastic community whose ruins we will see today. The community flourished throughout the Celtic Christian period, from the 6th through the 13th centuries. Glendalough was famous as a place of pilgrimage and as the final resting place of local chieftains.

Considering Kevin’s devotion to nature, it seems particularly fitting that Glendalough is now within Wicklow Mountains National Park, whose principal mission is to preserve its local plants and animals. Return to the hotel this evening to dine and overnight.

(B-D) ***Newgrange Hotel

August 1 Newgrange
Monday Knowth
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. We spend our final day at Newgrange and Knowth. These massive mounds are the crown jewels of megalithic monuments in Ireland. They are two of a trio of major monuments built within a bend on the Boyne river. The third, Dowth, may be under excavation and not be open to the public. According to legend, Newgrange is the place where the god of love, Angus Óg, was conceived by Boand, the goddess of the river, and Dagda Mór, the great good god of the Tuatha Dé Danaan. On the winter solstice, the rising sun enters and illuminates the inner chamber of Newgrange. Legend and physical phenomenon point to how the ancients understood this darkest period of the year as the time when cosmic forces unite to reinitiate the cycle of life.

Knowth appears to be associated with the moon. It may have been the site of ancient festivals held in the spring and fall which celebrated the marriage of the sun and the moon. It is believed that the earliest known map of the moon is carved on a stone within one of Knowth’s chambers.

Both Newgrange and Knowth are famous for their extraordinary stone art. You may find yourself puzzling at its meaning and you will certainly marvel at its beauty. Return to the hotel for dinner this evening.

(B-D) ***Newgrange Hotel

August 2 Depart Dublin
Tuesday
After a hearty Irish breakfast, depart for Dublin airport for the flight home. Bid Farewell to Ireland. We’ll be forever touched by the marvels we have experienced and the new friends we’ve met on our journey.
(B)

B=Breakfast and D=Dinner where noted and included in price of tour.