July 9 Arrive Ireland
Wednesday Drive to Sligo
Carrowmore
Céad Míle Fáilte, “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!” to Ireland. Plan to arrive in Shannon 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 six 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 has been identified as 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.

July 10 Carrowkeel
Thursday Heapstown
Moytura
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today we go to several sites in South Sligo, such as the beautiful Lough Arrow area, 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 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 Dinnseanchas, 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.

July 11 Céide Fields
Friday
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, 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.

July 12 Free Day
Saturday
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.

July 13 Creevykeel
Sunday 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.

July 14 Glencolumbkille
Monday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today, we travel up to Glencolumbkille in western Donegal. It is named for Colmcille (Columba), one of the leading figures of the early Celtic Church, and this remote land drew many early saints who build hermitages or monasteries here. It is the site of an arduous three-mile turas (pilgrimage) held each year on June 9th, Colmcille’s feast day. Many of the stations on this turas are marked by weathered stone slabs, carved with abstract figures of unusual design. Sharing the land with these symbols of still-living ritual are the remains of much older devotion. We will visit the 5,000 year old Cloghanmore court cairn, in the midst of the great bog field that preserved it, and the nearby portal dolmens built approximately 1,000 years later.

On our way to the glen, see breath-taking views of Donegal Bay, and pass long stretches of bog where families still harvest peat for fuel. Stop and pay our respects at St. Ciarán’s holy well in Kilcar. Return to the hotel. Dine on your own this evening or join Jo at a local restaurant.

July 15 Loughcrew
Tuesday
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 Sliabh na Caillí, “The Mountain of the Old Woman,” the central hill 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 edge of one cairn 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 rare 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. In addition, some researchers believe that the Loughcrew monuments have astronomical orientations. For example, on the equinoxes, the sun shines into Cairn T, the central and best-preserved cairn on Sliabh na Caillí. Check in to the hotel in Navan for dinner.

July 16 Newgrange
Wednesday Knowth
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. We spend our final day at Newgrange and Knowth. These massive mounds at Brú na Bóinne, “Mansions of the Boyne,” are the crown jewels of megalithic monuments in Ireland. They are two of a trio of sites built within a bend on the Boyne river. The third, Dowth, may still be under excavation and may 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 an ancient, internationally famous festival held in the spring every 19 years which celebrated the marriage of the sun and the moon. It is believed that the earliest known map of the moon, and 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 their meaning and you will certainly marvel at their beauty. Return to the hotel for dinner this evening.

July 17 Depart Dublin
Thursday
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=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner

Flight schedules always subject to change.

Dublin Extension
Meet You at the Castle

July 17 - 20, 2008
$630 with double occupancy

May 13 Arrive Ireland
Wednesday Drive to Sligo
Carrowmore
Céad Míle Fáilte, “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!” to Ireland. Plan to arrive in Shannon 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 six 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 has been identified as 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.

May 14 Carrowkeel
Thursday Heapstown
Moytura
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today we go to several sites in South Sligo, such as the beautiful Lough Arrow area, 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 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 Dinnseanchas, 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.

May 15 Céide Fields
Friday
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, 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.

May 16 Free Day
Saturday
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.

May 17 Creevykeel
Sunday 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.

May 18 Glencolumbkille
Monday
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. Today, we travel up to Glencolumbkille in western Donegal. It is named for Colmcille (Columba), one of the leading figures of the early Celtic Church, and this remote land drew many early saints who build hermitages or monasteries here. It is the site of an arduous three-mile turas (pilgrimage) held each year on June 9th, Colmcille’s feast day. Many of the stations on this turas are marked by weathered stone slabs, carved with abstract figures of unusual design. Sharing the land with these symbols of still-living ritual are the remains of much older devotion. We will visit the 5,000 year old Cloghanmore court cairn, in the midst of the great bog field that preserved it, and the nearby portal dolmens built approximately 1,000 years later.

On our way to the glen, see breath-taking views of Donegal Bay, and pass long stretches of bog where families still harvest peat for fuel. Stop and pay our respects at St. Ciarán’s holy well in Kilcar. Return to the hotel. Dine on your own this evening or join Jo at a local restaurant.

May 19 Loughcrew
Tuesday
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 Sliabh na Caillí, “The Mountain of the Old Woman,” the central hill 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 edge of one cairn 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 rare 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. In addition, some researchers believe that the Loughcrew monuments have astronomical orientations. For example, on the equinoxes, the sun shines into Cairn T, the central and best-preserved cairn on Sliabh na Caillí. Check in to the hotel in Navan for dinner.

May 20 Newgrange
Wednesday Knowth
Enjoy a hearty Irish breakfast. We spend our final day at Newgrange and Knowth. These massive mounds at Brú na Bóinne, “Mansions of the Boyne,” are the crown jewels of megalithic monuments in Ireland. They are two of a trio of sites built within a bend on the Boyne river. The third, Dowth, may still be under excavation and may 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 an ancient, internationally famous festival held in the spring every 19 years which celebrated the marriage of the sun and the moon. It is believed that the earliest known map of the moon, and 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 their meaning and you will certainly marvel at their beauty. Return to the hotel for dinner this evening.

May 21 Depart Dublin
Thursday
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=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner

Flight schedules always subject to change.

Dublin Extension
Meet You at the Castle

July 21 - 24, 2009
$820 based on double occupancy