Ireland

On Saturday we went to Four Knocks. Mr. Waffle refused to believe that such a place existed. But it does. It comes from the Irish, na Fuarchnoic which means the cold hills. It’s a passage grave but it’s not a particularly well-known site.

You get into it by picking up the key from a local.

We didn’t tell the children what it was but as we approached it, the Princess said, “It’s a passage grave, isn’t it? Like Newgrange.” Some people are very smart.

When we got there, we opened up the door in the hill with our key.

We went in and closed the door. As our eyes grew used to the gloom the light shining through the roof illuminated the neolithic carvings on the lintel stones.

Unlike, Newgrange, the children were free to run around with the torch (essential piece of kit for this outing) and shout and roar. Obviously, this kind of thing is off putting if there are other people about. But we were all on our own.

And then afterwards, they could roll off the top.

It was really excellent and appealed to all members of the family in slightly different ways.

And then we went to Ardgillan Castle for a cup of tea and a look at the playground. And that was very pleasant too.

We went to the zoo. We invested in an annual family membership. At the cost of it, we will be frogmarching them to the zoo at regular intervals from now on.

We went to visit Castletown House. I got excellent value for my heritage card this year, I think I will renew it. Can this post get more fascinating? You may well ask.

The children were virtuous. Even though I insisted on reading to them long passages from this book.

Unrelated: I got a quite spectacular migraine yesterday. As well as classic symptoms (for me – aura, nausea, headache), I also got pins and needles in my fingers which I never had before. It was most unnerving. I took to my bed. I am slightly fragile today but otherwise well. Thank you for asking.