Ireland & the back arse of nowhere #9: Loughcrew

"Ireland is a grand country... if you put a roof on it...", is what the tour guide told us that morning. The weather that day was going to be shite and we all knew it.

The bus was driving us to Loughcrew (a name that I keep forgetting) and it stopped just in the middle of nowhere. A few small buildings with thatched roofs formed a small community and we got out in front of it. "So now what do we do?".

The guide started walking up the hill and we followed. No clue where this was headed and no clue how far this hike was going to be. He told us it wasn't that far but we couldn't see any tomb anywhere!

The road travelled so far

You could tell that it had been raining a lot lately. The soil below the grass was super bouncy. And here and there, there were little muddy bits between the grass. I just didn't know where to put my feet. Was the grass too slippery or would I slip in the mud? I had seen people struggle and I wondered why they just didn't create a gravel path to the top. The poles sticking in the grass seemed so useless...

Is that it?

And there a fence showed up with a pile of rocks behind it, so it seemed. We had arrived! This was the amazing Loughcrew!!

So let me tell you a little more about it now that we are here. Loughcrew is another one of those passage tombs sites like we also saw on the Hill of Tara and Newgrange. It has about the same age as the one at Tara Hill (a tiny bit older) and again older than the pyramids, from around 3300 BC. The only thing here is that the site holds multiple tombs in close range to each other.

Cairn S

It was only 1863 when the serious exploration of this hilltop started. Every tomb that was discovered received its own letter. The major tomb on this hill is Cairn T, for instance. Next to the major one, there are a few smaller surrounding ones.

Cairn U, a ruined tomb without its top

The principal monument of Loughcrew is Cairn T. If you have the key to the gate, you will be able to check out the inside. The entrance of this tomb is directed so that it is able to receive the spring and autumn equinox. The light of the rising sun will then shine down the passage and light up the carvings on the backstone of the tomb.

As you can see below, the entrance of the tomb was kinda small. Further in, it became even smaller and my claustrophobia kicked in. I only made a few photos of the stone carvings at the entrance and checked out the rest in the 360 experience website.

Entrance Cairn T

Next to the entrance, you will find a beautifully decorated stone with amazing carvings. I can only imagine how much work this must have been. Due to all the visitors and nature the carvings have weathered a lot. Beautiful drawings of the art were made during the exploration of the hills. The drawings can now be found in Michael Herity's book "Irish Passage Graves" (1975).

Cairn T

There is a thing that I have seen around most of these passage tombs. People tend to want to stand on top of them. Many times the guide told us that it was dangerous because you are not standing on solid ground, but rather a pile of stacked stones and a hollow space. But nobody seemed to care. Parents just let their children climb on top of it anyway. Or even decided to join them! You don't want to ruin such a site by putting a fence around it. But you almost have to...

It was a bit of a short visit because there was a huge cloud coming for us. And since the way up was already pretty slippery sometimes, I didn't want to have to walk back down in the rain. I snapped a few final photos and walked back, keeping an eye on the cloud.

Unfortunately, not everyone had the same way of thinking. And while it started raining like crazy while most of us were already on the asphalted road again, there were a few people still on the hill. We thought it was weird that they kept staying there in the pissing rain though. Minutes later the guide came down to tell us that one of the girls slipped and broke her ankle. That turned into a huge expedition with the paramedics and fire brigade having to get on the hill to bring the girl to the ambulance. The poor girl picked the worst spot possible to break her leg. That day I learned the difference between the Irish tourist attractions and those in the US (common sense vs. warning signs and fences everywhere). And I figured that you can never trust a grass hill in Ireland when it is damp....

For an awesome 360 experience of that area, including a look inside the tomb, click here

PS. How many rainbows did you spot in my photos?