Lough Gor, the Bronze Age and Swimming

Sunday, July 14, 2019

This morning we traveled to Lough Gor, a site of beauty, but also the site of finds dating asfar back as the Neolithic part of the Stone Age.  The lake is beautiful:

With cattle appearing on the opposite side:

 One of the most important finds was from the early Bronze Age, and is an intact bronze shield, probably ceremonial.  The one here is a copy of the original which is in Dublin:

At the educational center they had Middle Ages clothing for the five children to try wearing:

 Nearby is the largest stone circle in Ireland, from 4000 B.C.E., the use of which remains uncertain.

Here’s an aerial view (internet):

The circle is older than Stonehenge; more information here:

https://loughgur.com/destination/the-stone-circle/

Some people say that if you put your forehead and hands on the largest (40 ton) stone, you can feel the energy flowing out of it.  Gil tried, but felt nothing special:

From there we went to a nearby Fairy Garden.  All I can say is that the two girls on the trip enjoyed it more than the boys.  There were no sightings, despite attempts.  Here’s Gil emerging from a fairy home which felt to him more like part of the Goldilocks story:

We went back to Adare where we had lunch and wandered the town a bit, shopping and looking.  We’ve been trying to find a sweater for Gil and cannot accomplish this task.  The children’s sizes don’t go large enough, and the smallest adult sizes are too big.  We’ve had sales clerks say to us that it’s true—there are no sweaters for him.  We don’t accept that, and will keep trying.  Finally, we went back to the hotel where Gil met up with the two other boys on the trip and they had a great couple of hours in the pool:

Tomorrow, off to Dublin.