Archaeology Field Trip #2: Overnight to Dublin, Meath, & Louth: September 4th and 5th

For our second archaeology field trip we left at 7am (meaning I had to leave my apartment at 6:30!) for an overnight trip to the Dublin area. While Ireland is a small country, it still takes about 4 hours to drive to Dublin so by the time we arrived, everyone was eager to leave the bus!

We started at the National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology (yay!) on Kildare Street. The Archaeology NMI has such an outstanding collection and it was fun to wander about a bit and see the pieces we’d been studying in person. Highlights here included: Viking artifacts from Woodquay (Viking version predecessor of Dublin), late Bronze Age gold artifacts (including lock rings, gorgets, and early Bronze Age lunulae), the Tara Brooch and Ardagh Chalice (and most everything else in the “treasury”) and, of course, the bog-mummies!

After a mildly disappointing lunch across the street (tea sandwiches and salty soup…we were hungry, darnit!) we trucked over to Christ Church Cathedral. Dublin’s a great city, but not much fun to walk through with a group of 30+. Also, I’d sort of forgotten how oddly kind everyone in Cork is. Dublin is a much…harder-skinned place.

Christ Church is a beautiful cathedral originally founded by a Viking king in 1030. The main part of the standing church, however, is from the late 12^th/early 13^th centuries. Down in the crypt you can see the mummified remains of a cat and mouse that got trapped in the organ pipes upstairs. The nave of the cathedral is mostly Gothic (with some Romanesque in the chancel). The floor tiles are colorful replicas of the original and feature the image that has become synonymous with Christ Church: the “foxy friars” (I am really not making this name up. It’s really what they call them. I swear.) The foxy friars are two abstract, fox-like figures in monastic garb and not only are they on the floor tiles, but they have also been carved into the chairs for the congregation.

After leaving Dublin city, we went to Monasterboice to see the famed high crosses. Once a key monastic center, Monasterboice features two of the finest early high crosses in all of Ireland and a wonderful example of a round tower (which is, as its name would indicate, a round free-standing tower that was originally and primarily a bell tower). Muiredach’s Cross is the finest carved in the area and the complex iconography on it is still widely studied. (Note: These pictures are from about five years ago...the weather was too bad to take any others this go around).

We spent the night in the village of Slane (a place known mostly for its castle, which has played host to some of the biggest rock acts seen in Ireland: U2, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, etc.). We stayed in the Slane Farm Hostel (I was in a room with twelve beds! Yikes!) and that evening went back into the village center to the pub there (the first round being graciously purchased by our professor on the program’s tab).

The next morning broke cold, grey, and rainy. We bussed over to Newgrange, a famous Neolithic passage tomb. While Newgrange is fantastic, the rudeness of the heritage centre’s staff and the whipping wind and freezing rain certainly put a damper on our experience. Drenched and cold, we went to the village of Trim. (Note: Like Monasterboice, this picture of Newgrange is from about 5 years ago...the weather on this last trip would not allow me to take any pictures...really...it was that bad).

Trim Castle, from the 12^th century, is the best-preserved Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland (it was used during the filming of Braveheart). Again, an otherwise interesting site was hurried through by numbed and dripping students and professor.

Four hours later we arrived back in Cork city excited to get in our hot showers and crawl into bed. While Dublin’s a great place, I know that I made the right decision in studying in Cork. Cork is so much more navigable and the people are generous and kind. Nice to visit, Dublin made a fun day-trip (despite the wretched weather) but I was definitely glad to be back “home” on the River Lee.