Glendalough

Glendalough is in County Wicklow, on the way to Dublin from Waterford. One of the things that it is famous for is the monastic settlement established by St. Kevin that dates back to the 6^th century. This settlement was host to a total of seven churches and a tower.

St. Kevin was someone who had connections at the time period as he was descended from one of the ruling families in Leinster. He studied under three holy men in Glendalough and returned later to establish a monastery in the vicinity. He had a following and left a number of writings that scholars still study. It is believed that he died about 618 AD and the settlement continued to flourish for the following 600 years.

In the twelfth century, St. Laurence O’Toole became Abbot of Glendalough and later became Archbishop of Dublin. He was known for his sanctity and hospitality. After his appointment as Archbishop, he still continued to visit Glendalough.

In 1214, the dioceses of Glendalough and Dublin were united. Once this was done, the settlement in Glendalough began to diminish and, in 1398, was destroyed by English forces, leaving it a ruin. However, it continued to be a place of pilgrimage.

Today, there is a Visitor’s Center that gives a fair amount of information regarding this location. There are also guided tours available. The guide that we had was quite knowledgeable and the tour took about an hour. There is a lot to see, you could spend easily spend a day there as there are also a couple of trails to follow. In order to see everything, an hour or two is not enough time.

Day Seventeen – Field Trip, April 2016

This morning, we left our hotel a little later than usual. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30 am and I think that we were very close to our timing. We had only two stops before arriving at our hotel, but we were on the bus for quite a while.

During the first leg of our trip, the bus driver put on “Ryan’s Daughter” for our entertainment. I think that quite a few of us got some zzz during that time and we finished the first half of the movie by the time we arrived at our first destination.

We visited the sixth century monastic settlement that had seven churches and a visitor’s center. We walked through their display and then watched the audio-visual presentation. Afterwards, we had a guided tour through some of the grounds. Most of the grounds are now a cemetery. I may be wrong, but I think that I can safely say that there are thousands of people buried there. Our first stop was in front of some headstones for some of the Farrell clan. I was quite excited to see them. My brother also saw them and I now have a picture of him beside one of them.

Once we were back on the bus, the driver put on the rest of the movie for us to enjoy. The movie was almost finished when we arrived at our second destination and we wanted to finish before going in. It was taking too long, so we watched the last of it while we were waiting for some members of the group to return to the bus.

We had arrived at Trinity College and had a date with the Book of Kells. I enjoyed the exhibition put together that discussed various aspect of the Book. Then, we went into another room where the Book of Kells is kept. It was something to see.

The exit was through the Long Room upstairs. I was astounded with the sight that I never thought that I would be having. All those books, all those bookshelves, in one space.

I may not be able to do a post tomorrow. If I don’t, I will be posting the next day.