Day 18 - St. Patrick and Snakes



Correction on Day 17:  Carrickfergus Castle was built by John de Courcy, not Stongbow (Richard de Clare). Mixing up the English lords.

Before we left Carrickfergus, we visited the home of Andrew Jackson’s parents. However, Jackson was born in the US. The home is now a small museum, which we didn’t visit since it wasn't open yet. Just a bit of interesting trivia.





We drove about an hour south and into the county of Down, where we visited the Inch Abbey ruins. The abbey was Cistercian and founded by John de Courcy in about 1180. Apparently John had destroyed a monestary in the past and felt guilty about it. In addition to Inch, he founded (or funded) 3 or 4 others in the area.  




A ruined tower staircase



The town of Downpatrick was our next stop. Downpatrick has a museum called the St. Patrick Center. The museum describes the life of St. Patrick. He was born to a Romanized Briton family, captured and enslaved in Ireland for 6 years, escaped back to Brittania, became a priest, and eventually returned back to Ireland to convert the local population. Quite a life. However, he did not rid the island of snakes. There haven't been snakes in Ireland for thousands of years.


We then visited the Down Cathedral in town which has the supposed tomb of Patrick. Just a large stone marker over the grave. 







A short drive got us to Saul Church, which is on the spot where Patrick built his first church on his return to Ireland as a missionary. A couple of his writings survived (copies) in which he gave details of his life and the hardships he endured. All quite simple and believable. It wasn't until much later that stories such as the snakes appeared (1700’s).






Our final stop was Monastarboice. The location of the ruins of the monastery Boice. The cemetary is know for its excellent examples of High Crosses. High Crosses are usually ornate and are a combination of Christian symbols and some of the older pagan symbols that were "Christianized". The crosses were from the 9th century and in one example have numerous biblical scenes carved into them.




Sundial




Tonight we are staying in an old Manor House. The downside is that breakfast is served at the hotel across the street. But it was still fun to pull into a gated drive…once we got hold of the code. 




Tomorrow we will visit the neolithic tombs at Newgrange.

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