Prehistoric mystery...

There are places that cast a spell on you.. Newgrange is  on that list. A pagan dream of esoteric ceremonies and mystical dances. Time and space frozen into stone... Newgrange  which is a 30 minute drive from Dublin, Ireland, is older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge..

Newgrange is part of a heritage trail in Ireland, called Bru na Boine which includes the burial mounds of Knowth, Douth, and the Hill of Tara among others.

 The Newgrange site sits perched on a hill in the Boyne Valley with lush green pastures and hills all around. 

 

  The exterior of the mound is decorated with 97 large kerbstones(that are carved with intriguing spiral designs).

This tomb is called a passage tomb because of the long corridor leading to a central burial room. Were these sacred temples or astronomical observatories? Or territorial markers? Or were they a pagan homage to the seasons?  Nobody knows for sure.

 Our guide, Karlos warns us that those who are claustrophobic should think twice...We crept into the narrow passage, squeezing ourselves between closely placed rocks. The path went on a slight incline and then widened into an inner burial chamber built in the shape of a crucifix. 

The overlapping stones form an intricate conical roof and have been packed with burnt clay and sand. For millennia, the roof has been intact and kept the inner chamber dry.

 Many of the stones are decorated with ancient art- symbols like triangles, waves, spirals, lozenges and circles. Karlos tells us that this place has two thirds of all the known Neolithic carvings and they are similar to Aboriginal representations found in other parts of the world.

Maybe they represent symbols from nature: the sun, sky and the air? 

Newgrange is famous for its winter solstice when the rays of sunlight enter the roof box at the entrance, crawl into the passage, and fall on the inner chamber, illuminating it with golden light- the event lasts just 17 minutes. This incredible event is a great tourist attraction and tickets are sold by luck-of-the-draw lottery.         

                                                                                                 

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Poltergeist..

As we drove through the imposing gates into the expansive estate, passing a glassy lake, I could not help thinking that it was a perfect setting for staging murder mysteries or exploring the paranormal. In the hands of the Leslie family (who can trace their lineage to Attila the Hun) since the 1600s, Castle Leslie in Glaslough village, in Northern Ireland, sprawls over a thousand acres.

When we entered the castle we were handed an antique key to our rooms, and led through the hallways. The decor was quirky and filled with tapestries, paintings and a lot of family history.

We got the grand tour that night from Sir John Leslie, the 93 year old eccentric owner of the castle who has lived here since 1994. Sammy Leslie, Sir John’s niece is the person responsible for turning the castle into a viable proposition.

Sir John Leslie

The family has famous connections. Sir John talked casually about the Duke of Wellington who was a first cousin and Sir Winston Churchill who was a close friend of the family. He played a Chopin piece effortlessly on the piano for us.

Sir Winston Churchill's christening gown

Desmond's Room

Each of the rooms was named after a member of the Leslie family and decorated in an eclectic pastiche of styles. My room was called Desmond’s room named after Desmond, Sammy’s father, a dashing pilot, who wrote several books.

The Blue Room- a living room 

Castle Leslie like many other castles has a plethora of ghost stories. Bells ring on their own, a monk shuffles past guests and shadowy figures disappear around the corner...Norman’s Room was named after Norman, a member of the family who was destined to inherit the castle but was killed prematurely in the war. Apparently his ghost (reputed to be a friendly one like Casper) still inhabits his room and is known to levitate the bed.

The Royal throne?

                                                                                                     
The Red Room was Sir John’s mother’s room- there is an ornate four poster bed, but it’s the bathroom which had us stunned: a unique wood panelled throne toilet with even the coat of arms and the first plumbing bath to be installed in Ireland.  That must be why we say ‘sitting on the throne’! We hear that a ghost who shuffles paper is often been sighted here!

Memorabilia on display

War medals, a quill pen used by a former Pope, a bullet extracted from the thigh of Tom Leslie who was injured in the Battle of the Light Brigade, Sir Winston Churchill’s christening dress and old letters were on display in the living room.

The family coat of arms

In the hallway is the coat of arms bearing the family motto “Gripp fast” indicating the clan’s never-say-die attitude perhaps? The Scottish member of the clan, Bartholomew Leslie was rescuing Queen Margaret of Scotland and fording a river.  He was riding the horse sitting behind her and when the horse almost sank in the river he shouted,” Grip fast, my buckle”. She held on to his buckle and was saved. And that became their motto.

The dining room

We walked through the haunted gallery where people have seen a lady in a long dress walk even in broad daylight... Come evening, the members of our group were anxious to sleep in their friend’s rooms and imagined footsteps in the corridor.. It was a night which we would remember for a long time! I slept with the lights on, just in case some ghosts decided to make their appearance...

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DRIVING ALONG THE CAUSEWAY COASTAL ROUTE IN IRELAND

Ladder farms

Windswept cliffs and unspoilt beaches, sprinkled with atmospheric forts and castles, one of the most scenic
 drives that I have been on is the Causeway Coastal drive from   Belfast Lough to the Giant Causeway and the walled city of London Derry. There are a succession of sleepy, desolate fishing hamlets and spick and span towns- each with a unique history peppered with legends of giants, ghosts and fairies. This is the land of the ice gouged valleys or the nine glens of Antrim. The characteristic U shaped valleys have given rise to the ‘ladder farms’ that we see- vertical stripes of holdings running down the slopes to the valley which give each farm an equal share of lowland pasture, hill ground and mountain grazing.

Carnlough Harbour The picturesque village of Carnlough and its harbour dotted with red and green boats has a piece of history: The Londonderry Arms Hotel, an old coaching inn

here was once owned by Sir Winston Churchill himself.

Cushendall with its giant mural of hurling Cushendall is a town with Georgian buildings, where three glens or valleys come together in a sheltered bay. A bright mural of the local sport, hurling, one of the fastest ball games in the world, greets us here.The dramatic, mysterious Lougharema or the Vanishing Lake which is a mud encrusted valley on a dry day and becomes a lake teeming with fish when it rains. When the lake dries the fish hide in the limestone caverns below the limestone. And of course there’s an Irish yarn! Locals say that it’s haunted by the ghost of Colonel Mc Neil and his horses who drowned here in 1888 when the water levels rose abruptly!

Dunluce Castle There is the atmospheric skeletal remains of the 17th century Dunluce castle which tethers dramatically on a rocky promontory above the jagged coast. This was the stomping ground of early Vikings and Christians. Ships from the Spanish Armada once floundered off the coast here.

 

Bushmills Town famous for its Scotch distillery which has been making whiskey from 1600s making it the oldest licensed distillery in the world. People on the banks of the St Columb’s Rill River have been making whiskey- uisce beatha or the water of life for more than 400 years. . Stay in the atmospheric Bushmills Inn, a re-created coaching inn with individual white washed rooms named after Irish whiskeys.

Portrush town Portrush is the resort town of the district: amusement arcades, rides and seaside kitsch along with the largest number of camper holiday homes.

A spectacular sandy beach like the arc of the moon spreads out like a Japanese fan -it’s the White park bay with ancient dunes and rare orchids.The climax of the route is at the UNESCO site The Giant’s causeway- a surreal, bizarre scene out of an alien planet-geometric, perfectly symmetric honeycomb of gargantuan basalt columns arranged like stepping stones. The result of a volcanic explosion or as the legend goes the result of the fight between two giants? Driving on the Causeway Coastal Route is definitely one of the things to do before you die!

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