Monday, October 7th
Our last day to explore Ireland and we start off for the Loughcrew Cairns and Trim Castle with our last stop at Hill of Tara.
Loughcrew Cairns are a series of tombs situated on a Hilltops in County Meath. They were created by Ireland’s first farmers in the Neolithic Age.
The Basic Trim Castle was finished around 1175. The two gates and moat were added along the way. The castle presently sits on 3 acres. Pieces of towers are seen across the river. We walked around the outside first and then explored inside the walls. This was one of the sites on which Braveheart was filmed.
Walking around the outside of Trim Castle 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
From the outside 
Looking at castle wall from inside 
inside Toward opposite direction 
Diane in front of castle 
Inside castle wall 
Inside Castle walls 
Entrance to castle area via waterway from moat/river 
Phil inside castle walls 
Trim Castle 
Trim Castle 
Gate house 
Main gate over moat
Lastly, we made it to the Hill of Tara, an enormous sight on top of a hill, of course. It is Ireland’s most revered ancient landscapes, dating back to 3300BC. The Mound of Hostages is the oldest of the visible monuments at Tara. The portal stone looks a lot like the portal stone at Loughcrew Cairn. The Tech Cormaic is a ringfort site from the first millennium AD. The Lia Fail, known as The Stone of Destiny, is a white granite stone associated with the inauguration of the kings of Tara.
Lastly, our last castle ruins from afar. We used our zoom lens to get the picture from the Hill of Tara.
Our last night in Ireland is spent at The Courtyard hotel which is the sight of the original Guinness brewery! We ate
Last thoughts on Ireland
We found Ireland to be a very beautiful, picturesque, green country. The people are very friendly and take personal pride in their surroundings so that the villages are kept tidy and neat, often embellished with pots of flowers on the streets or hanging on walls or posts. The full Irish breakfast is huge. The roads can be extremely skinny. Everyone is so friendly!
Miscellaneous photos from Ireland. . .
Side note: We are about a week behind for two reasons. The first is slow internet access at the last few hotels. Secondly, sometimes we don’t find a place until after 7pm and then dinner and the it’s too late. Spoiler alert: We bought a cuckoo clock today!