Across the Pond: It's so ancient!

Before leaving Sligo, we stopped at a few ruins and monuments on our way out. From what I remember, the sites were amazing, however my professor's wife kept telling us we'd stop for breakfast but we NEVER did and didn't have anything to eat until 1pm. I was fine because I had some snacks and frankly I would starve for an entire day if it meant I could go explore Ireland. However, other people in my group were HANGRY. I would say it was the climax of Survivor Ireland. I had to keep all excitement at a bare minimum or else people would give me hate glares for being happy. I'm not even kidding. I tried not to talk to anyone much until we had eaten some lunch and I think that was for the best! Here are some pictures from the day...

Ruins of an old church and cemetery

I'm trying to remember the story behind this. I believe it was some sort of sacrificial stone used during pagan rituals or something like that.

We went to see a megalithic monument called Labby Dolmen. A dolmen is basically a big rock balanced on other vertical rocks. There are lots of them throughout Europe. This is the second largest in Ireland. To get to the dolmen we had to walk through these dense woods. The trees are in perfect rows, so each gap looks like the path. The only way to know you are going the right direction is to follow the yellow arrows painted on the trees. Even though it was the middle of the day once we got a few rows in it was as dark as night. Super creepy.

Labby Dolmen (4000-2500 BC)

On the way back from the monument we stopped to take some pictures and got behind the rest of the group. We totally got lost. Somehow we got confused and the arrows kept leading us around in circles. Eventually we found our way back, but it was a little scary!

Next we went to the Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, a Neolithic passage tomb cemetery. There are 14 tombs (which look like rock piles from the outside) located on top of a huge hill. They date back to around 3400 BC. This was one of my favorite sites we visited. It just amazed me how old the monuments were. Someone 5,000 years ago built the structures around me. 5,000 YEARS! And they are still there! It was so cool!

First we had to walk up the giant hill, which was really pretty and had little sheepies everywhere.