Day 1

We will meet at our Dublin Hotel in the afternoon and have a get-together at a time convenient to everyone with the evening free.  As our hotel is located in the heart of Dublin, good shopping and a myriad of restaurants, cafes and pubs are within easy walking distance.

Day 2

A visit to Dublin would certainly not be complete without seeing the Book of Kells, a beautifully illuminated 1,000 year old manuscript.  It is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures and was written and illustrated by Irish monks more than 1,000 years ago.  It is housed in the Trinity College Dublin Library and we will start the day here.  Later, we will visit the National Museum of Ireland which has a fantastic collection of ancient Irish artifacts from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages including exquisitely crafted Celtic gold jewellery, weaponry, everyday household items, the internationally famous Tara Broach and Ardagh Chalice, a silver replica of the Gundustrup Cauldron, and some wonderful examples of female fertility stone carvings, sheelanagigs.  There will also be ample time to explore the centre of Dublin and maybe visit Dublin’s Viking interactive exhibition or hop on a Dublin bus to take the city tour.  We will end the day with a group dinner in a pub with live traditional music.

Day 3

After a leisurely breakfast, we will drive north to Cookstown where we will spend the next two nights.  Archaeologists have identified over seventy ancient monuments in the area and, in the afternoon, we will drive to the most beautiful of these, the Bronze Age site of Beaghmore with its seven very lovely small stone circles, cairns and stone rows.  It is the most wonderful place to do ritual and meditate.  We will return to Cookstown where we will have the evening free.

Day 4

We will get an early start and drive to Portrush where we will begin our day’s journey along the stunningly lovely North Antrim Coast.  Certainly one of the world’s great drives, we will make as many stops as we can to take in the magnificent views of the coastline and, in particular, visit the ruins of Dunluce Castle, located high on the cliff tops.  We will also spend several hours at the Giant’s Causeway, with its unique set of spectacular hexagonal natural rock formations and have lunch here.  In the afternoon, for those who would like the challenge, we will walk across to Carrick-a-Rede Island using the famous swinging rope bridge.  The island boasts uninterrupted views to Rathlin Island and to Scotland.

Day 5

We will leave our hotel mid-morning for the drive to Armagh to visit Navan Fort, or Emain Macha, the ancient seat of the Ulster Kings.  It is an area of great archaeological importance comprising massive earthworks, settlement sites and sacred places and is Northern Ireland’s most important ancient monument.  The site is particularly associated with the mythical stories of King Conor and the great warrior Cu Chulainn and his great battle with Queen Maeve of Connaught.  At the Visitor's Centre we will see a film about the most important myths associated with this sacred site as well as visiting a reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse.  We will also visit the nearby sacred pool known as the King’s Stables where offerings were made in ancient times.  The area has been sacred for 7,500 years. Our next stop on our way south is the ancient town of Kells, once the place of many battles between Anglo, Irish and Norman fighters when Kells was on the border of English occupied Ireland.  It was at the ninth century Abbey of Kells that the Book of Kells was kept for centuries until its removal for safety reasons to Trinity College Dublin.  We will see the Abbey’s round tower and also five wonderful examples of large Celtic crosses.

We will then take the short drive to Teltown House, our home for the next five nights.  A 17th century house and working farm, Teltown has its own ancient burial mound and ditch beyond the barn complete with the 1,000 year old ruins of a Celtic church destroyed in a Viking raid and and a 5,000 year old carved spiral stone.  It has been a sacred site for thousands of years with burials having taken place as recently as the 1970s and is today visited by local pagans for ritual purposes.  It was also here that the ancient Taillteann Games were celebrated by the Celts at the Fire Festival of Lughnasadh and for hundreds of years chariot and horse races were held on a course around the Taillteann mounds which we shall also visit

Day 6

A free day to relax at lovely Teltown House