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Bricks and stones  MALCOLM
ROGERS looks at what’s on offer besides pubs, clubs and views in
Ireland during 2008 in the way of museums, standing stones, exhibits and
country houses.
Observe the Observatory
Take a trip to Valentia Observatory, which despite its name is not on
the island but in Cahirciveen. The historic weather station measures earth
tremors, ozone levels and magnetic fluctuations. Another part of the Observatory
monitors climate change by logging the date when buds, leaves and flowers
appear.
Meteorological observation has had a long history in Ireland — our
early monks were among the first record keepers in the world — and
this station is part of that tradition. It boasted the first trans-Atlantic
telegraph cable, Marconi’s wireless station and some of the first
weather balloons. You can still see the latter being released.
The Observatory is not open all week, so phone ahead.
Tel: 00 353 66 9476353.
Pulling a stroke
Strokestown Park House and Garden in Co. Roscommon has now been restored
to its full 18th century splendour, with some fine paintings, curios and
antiques. Originally a Jacobean mansion, of particular interest are some
original documents and images from the Great Famine. To the west are several
small loughs and to the south rise the heights of Slieve Bawn from which
you can get terrific views of the winding Shannon away to the east.
Irish Linen Centre, Lisburn, Co. Antrim
It’s astonishing to think that Belfast and its environs were once
home to the world’s greatest manufacturers of rope, steel, ships
— and of course linen. Almost all gone now but at the Irish Linen
Centre you can at least still see linen being made. The museum contains
some machines which have a Heath Robinson type beauty themselves, as well
as audio visuals which evoke a not-quite-so beautiful era: The Victorian
times of child labour and hard graft in the linen mills. Open Monday-Saturday,
9.30am-5pm. Tel 028 9266 3377.
Glengowla Silver Lead Mines, Galway
Ireland’s only mine with shafts and tunnels open to the public.
Glengowla heritage and visitor centre is located just two miles from Oughterard
on the Clifden road (N59). You can see the workings of this abandoned
mine with an underground trip to view the large marble chamber and mineral
studded caverns. Tel: 00 353 (0) 91 552360.
The Natural History Museum, Merrion Street, Dublin 2
The Natural History Museum is renowned as one of the last great Victorian
cabinet museums, with exhibits packed onto every square inch of floor
and wall space, and not a sign of
hi-tech multi-media interaction in sight. Here you will find the most
complete museum experience possible, because in essence this is a time
warp. No description could prepare you for the treasure house of zoological
exhibits which awaits inside. All the familiar Irish animals are present
and correct — the Irish hare, the red fox and
the Irish jay, along with rarities such as the pine marten and otter.
Admission is free.
Telephone: 00 353 1 677 7444.
The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Co. Down`
The Museum ranks among Ireland’s foremost visitor attractions, recapturing
a disappearing way of life, preserving traditional skills and celebrating
transport history.
The Folk Museum invites you to visit a typical Ulster town of the early
1900s and to stroll through yesteryear’s countryside with its farms,
cottages, crops and livestock.
The Transport Museum presents Ireland’s most comprehensive transport
collection and includes an award-winning Irish Railway Collection and
road transport galleries and also Titanic and Flight Experience exhibitions.
Tel: 028 904 28428.
Waterford Treasure, Merchants Quay, Waterford
Housed in a converted warehouse known as The Granary, this amazing collection
of artefacts reflects the fact that Waterford is Ireland’s oldest
city.
The exhibits include the Catholic bishop’s cape in cloth-of-gold,
royal charters and numerous archaeological samples from Waterford’s
chequered history.
Tel: 00 353 51 304 5000.
The GAA Museum, Croke Park, Dublin
The museum is part of the hallowed Croke Park, a stadium which has the
fourth largest capacity in Europe (85,000) after Barcleona’s Nou
Camp, Real Madrid’s Bernabeu and the San Siro in Milan.
The importance of the GAA in the history of Ireland’s struggle for
independence is highlighted in the audio-visual presentation National
Awakening, which relates the events of last century’s first Bloody
Sunday in 1920.
The museum also has a comprehensive range of exhibits related to the development
of the Gaelic sports — hurling, football, camogie, handball and
road bowling and a photo gallery depicting the great Gaelic names of the
past.
Tel: 00 353 1 855 8176.
 Casino
Marino, Dublin 3
Designed for Lord Charlemont by Sir William Chambers, this neo-classical
masterpiece in north Dublin is a beautifully designed house.
The ‘casino’ has nothing to do with gambling, by the way.
It’s the Italian diminutive for ‘casa’ or house.
The renaissance splendour of the place still shines through. In fact it’s
a pity that the chap it was built for, Lord C, never actually set foot
in Ireland.
Tel: 00 353 1 8331618.
Church of St. Aengus, Burt, Co. Donegal
This masterpiece by the late Liam McCormick is the finest modern church
in Ireland. Its circular stone-walled exterior was inspired by the pre-Christian
Grianán Aileach nearby. Inside, a wonderful mixture of light and
ornamentation above the altar gives a beautiful, serene atmosphere to
the entire building.
Down on the farm
Céide Fields Visitor Centre is the most extensive Stone Age site
in the world. Five miles west of Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, there are burial
sites and field systems dating back 5,000 years.
Part of the bog has been cut away to reveal the collapsed stone walls
of the ancient fields and there’s an interpretative centre where
you can get an idea how our early ancestors lived.
Tel 00 353 (0) 96 43325.
Observation Tower, Smithfield Village, Dublin.
The glass pod atop the old Jameson distillery chimney has inevitably become
known as ‘the flue with a view’.
Since Nelson departed his column somewhat suddenly in 1966, this vantage
point has the best view in Dublin. From the top you can see as far north
as Howth Head, and as far south as Killiney Beach.
Tel: 00 353 1 817 3820.
Waterfront Hall, Belfast
This sleek building on the banks of the Lagan, overlooking the Harland
and Wolff shipyards where the Titanic was built, presents concerts, theatre
— or just an exceptionally good cup of coffee. It’s reminiscent
of some of the buildings making up the South Bank in London but with Belfast
Lough added. Designed by Robinson MacIlwaine, this circular building is
the match of anything in Europe.
Pay a flying visit
During the 1930s and early 1940s Foynes in Co. Limerick was the pivotal
point for air traffic between North America and Europe, what is now called
a hub airport.
But way back then flying was a more rigorous business than today, so it’s
no wonder that Irish coffee was invented here — to fortify the doughty
air travellers.
The Foynes Flying Boat Museum recalls this era with exhibits and illustrations,
a 1940s style cinema and the original terminal building.
Hunt Museum The Hunt’s over
If you’re looking for a truly absorbing museum, pay a visit to the Hunt
Museum, an internationally important collection of some 2,000 original
works of art and antiquity, from Stone Age to the 20th century, including
a bronze horse by Leonardo da Vinci, and paintings by Renoir, Picasso
and Yeats. The museum also features an extraordinary medieval curio —
a medal allegedly made out of one of the thirty pieces of silver given
to Judas for betraying Jesus. And there it is, right in the middle of
Limerick!
Westport House, Co. Mayo
Westport House should be visited not least because of its magnificent
setting on the edge of Clew Bay. Thackeray described the scenery hereabouts
as “the most beautiful in the world” and it would be hard
to disagree with old Billy Makepeace. The mainland of Ireland suddenly
stops here and the land appears to have shattered into thousands of tiny
misty and mystical islands.
Westport is the largest and most important country house west of the
Shannon and remains in the possession of the family that built it.
Since the late 18th century, visitors have marvelled at the building’s
‘up yours’ style of architecture.
It used to have a beautiful demesne but sadly, as is the way of these
things in Ireland, this has been seriously mutilated by development in
recent decades.
Newgrange Passage Tomb, Co. Meath
Brú na Bóinne is quite simply one of the finest structures
in Europe and one of the oldest buildings in the world.
These passage tombs, approximately 5,000 years old, are probably the oldest
man-made structures still surviving.
At the winter solstice, December 21, the main passage tomb is strikingly
lit up for 17 minutes by the rising sun.
A visit to this place leaves you wondering about our ancient ancestors
and their subtle aptitude for engineering, incorporating art, science
and spirituality.
Creggandeveskey Court
A beautifully-situated court tomb in Co. Tyrone, quite difficult to reach
by foot but worth every footstep of the way. Nearby is a well preserved
Mass-stone from a much later period when Irish people were prevented by
the penal code of openly practising their religion.
The Poulnabrone Portal dolmen in Co. Clare is what is known in archeological
circles, indeed stone circles, as a single-chambered megalithic tomb.
These gaunt stone structures occur in many parts of Ireland but this one
in its spectacular setting on the Burren makes it a Stonehenge, in southern
England was built in approximately 1800 BC, more than 1,000 years after
Newgrange had been built.
It’s exact purpose is unknown but there are persistent, although
unfounded, theories that some of the rocks used in the construction originated
in the area of Naas in Co. Kildare. |
