You have to imagine the thick Irish brogues to really get the effect.<\/p>\n
American accent: “So … what do all<\/a> these<\/a> spirals<\/a> signify?”<\/p>\n Irish accent: “Well, we don’t really know. But aren’t they lovely?”<\/p>\n American accent: “And what exactly happened in these recesses<\/a>? Were they burial tombs, or …”<\/p>\n Irish accent: “Well, actually, nobody knows, love.”<\/p>\n American accent: “These standing stones <\/a>are amazing. Why did they place them like that?”<\/p>\n Irish accent: “Well, we don’t really know.”<\/p>\n Literally. The tour went on like that for 45 minutes. It was positively charming. I loved every second of it. Basically the theme was: Nobody knows what the FECK went on here, but isn’t it lovely?<\/p>\n One of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. I highly recommend it to you all. Here are 101 facts about New grange<\/a>. I guess there are some things that “we know”.<\/p>\n I have a couple of wee goals in life – not really personal achievement goals – but things I would like to see, and one of them is I would love to be there at Newgrange (with all the crowds) on the winter solstice – to see the sun illuminate the inner tomb. What happens is – on the winter solstice – you can buy a ticket <\/a>to hang out either around New grange – or within the inner tomb (I think the waiting list is years long) – and at sunrise (which, in Ireland, is an iffy prospect – it’s usually rainy during winter solstice) the sun enters the main door<\/a>, crawls up the passageway, and FLOODS the inner tomb with light. They recreate it during the tour (where the ongoing theme is “Well, nobody really knows, love”) – and I swear to God, you feel your heart beat either quicken or slow to a turtle’s pace when that light pours itself into the pitch black.<\/p>\n The fact that “nobody knows” is what makes the place so special, so magical.<\/p>\n An ancient and important site.<\/p>\n You know what I felt at Newgrange, standing in the pitch black with my sisters, in that ancient tomb, with the spiral rock carvings above and below us, waiting for the light to crawl up the slanting passage? I felt: Man. It is awesome to be a member of the human race. Humans are absolutely beyond belief. I am really PROUD of us. Even though we can’t know what exactly drove those ancient people to create such a structure – we can marvel at their knowledge, their spirit, their drive. They are in an unending continuum with this event<\/a>. It’s the same impetus. They knew to build the inner passageway at just the right slant upwards – so that the sun could crawl upwards and flood the inner passageway and inner “tomb” (or whatever it was) for the maximum amount of time. When you duck down under the entrance stone, and enter the darkness – you feel the path go on a steep incline. You are inside the earth, walking UP. How did they know? Well, they just did. And I am just proud of the human race for all of that. What a mystery we are. What a neverending and curious mystery.<\/p>\n American accent: “And … sorry … I know we’ve covered this … but what was going on with those spirals??”<\/p>\n Irish accent, “Oh, love, nobody really knows.”<\/p>\n “Private” thought: If I ever get another tattoo, it’ll be of Newgrange spirals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You have to imagine the thick Irish brogues to really get the effect. American accent: “So … what do all these spirals signify?” Irish accent: “Well, we don’t really know. But aren’t they lovely?” American accent: “And what exactly happened … Continue reading
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![standing stones <\/a>are amazing. Why did they place them like that?”<\/p>\nIrish accent: “Well, we don’t really know.”<\/p>\nLiterally. The tour went on like that for 45 minutes. It was positively charming. I loved every second of it. Basically the theme was: Nobody knows what the FECK went on here, but isn’t it lovely?<\/p>\nOne of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. I highly recommend it to you all. Here are 101 facts about New grange<\/a>. I guess there are some things that “we know”.<\/p>\nI have a couple of wee goals in life – not really personal achievement goals – but things I would like to see, and one of them is I would love to be there at Newgrange (with all the crowds) on the winter solstice – to see the sun illuminate the inner tomb. What happens is – on the winter solstice – you can buy a ticket <\/a>to hang out either around New grange – or within the inner tomb (I think the waiting list is years long) – and at sunrise (which, in Ireland, is an iffy prospect – it’s usually rainy during winter solstice) the sun enters the main door<\/a>, crawls up the passageway, and FLOODS the inner tomb with light. They recreate it during the tour (where the ongoing theme is “Well, nobody really knows, love”) – and I swear to God, you feel your heart beat either quicken or slow to a turtle’s pace when that light pours itself into the pitch black.<\/p>\nThe fact that “nobody knows” is what makes the place so special, so magical.<\/p>\nAn ancient and important site.<\/p>\nYou know what I felt at Newgrange, standing in the pitch black with my sisters, in that ancient tomb, with the spiral rock carvings above and below us, waiting for the light to crawl up the slanting passage? I felt: Man. It is awesome to be a member of the human race. Humans are absolutely beyond belief. I am really PROUD of us. Even though we can’t know what exactly drove those ancient people to create such a structure – we can marvel at their knowledge, their spirit, their drive. They are in an unending continuum with this event<\/a>. It’s the same impetus. They knew to build the inner passageway at just the right slant upwards – so that the sun could crawl upwards and flood the inner passageway and inner “tomb” (or whatever it was) for the maximum amount of time. When you duck down under the entrance stone, and enter the darkness – you feel the path go on a steep incline. You are inside the earth, walking UP. How did they know? Well, they just did. And I am just proud of the human race for all of that. What a mystery we are. What a neverending and curious mystery.<\/p>\nAmerican accent: “And … sorry … I know we’ve covered this … but what was going on with those spirals??”<\/p>\nIrish accent, “Oh, love, nobody really knows.”<\/p>\n“Private” thought: If I ever get another tattoo, it’ll be of Newgrange spirals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You have to imagine the thick Irish brogues to really get the effect. American accent: “So … what do all these spirals signify?” Irish accent: “Well, we don’t really know. But aren’t they lovely?” American accent: “And what exactly happened … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3445"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178620,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions\/178620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.knowth.com\/images-ng\/ng-stand-700.jpg\"){kind=link}