Students study abroad

Travel Days: From Dublin to Adare and Galway

By Kathryn Reising ‘10

After class one morning, three other students and I took advantage of a travel day and took an overnight trip to Adare and Galway. We traveled by train to Limerick, and from there, one student’s family friend picked us up and brought us to Adare. We are enjoying Dublin, but nothing compares to the Irish countryside.

Helen, the family friend, gave us a brief tour and provided her family history in Adare. Her family owns two pubs in town, the Bill Chawke and Aunty Lena's. Bill Chawke was Helen's father, and Aunty Lena was her aunt. Helen was actually born and lived in the apartment above Bill Chawke's, and grew up working in Aunty Lena's.

There are some fascinating remains of old churches in Adare. The old remains of the Church of Ireland were tucked between a beautiful river walk and a field of grazing cows.

Directly across the street from the Church of Ireland lies the Adare Manor — perhaps my favorite place in Ireland so far. The manor was owned by the Dunraven family from the time it was being built in the 1700s, until it was sold to an American man, Thomas Kane, in 1987. Today, it is a premier golf course and resort.

Adare was unbelievably picturesque and the people were so welcoming.

After staying the night in an absolutely beautiful little bed and breakfast (and being treated to a full Irish breakfast the next morning) we headed back to Limerick to catch a bus to Galway.

We were lucky enough to be in Galway during the Volvo Ocean Race festival, and there were tons of people and boats in the harbor. A group of fighter planes flew overhead at one point; the noise was so loud I almost dropped my camera.

We spent the afternoon lying in the sun in a park and dangling our feet over the water at the ocean's edge. It was the perfect, relaxing afternoon! Had it not been for the day off of class, we never would have had the time to travel that far out of the city, but Adare was definitely the highlight of the trip thus far!

One day, the entire program took a day-trip to Newgrange, an ancient tomb and burial site. The site was constructed over 5,000 years ago and is older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

The tomb has a single passage entrance, and opens into a small, vaulted room. The tomb was built so on the winter solstice, the sun rises directly in line with the passage and illuminates the room inside. Since the tomb was built before recorded history, there are only speculations about its origins, but it was thought to mark the end of the solar year and celebrate the approaching summer months.

The guides kept emphasizing the narrowness of the passage into the tomb, so I went in last, hoping to not feel claustrophobic. Being 5'8", I had to duck the entire length of the passage. At the very end, before entering into the main chamber, the passage was the exact width of my body from shoulder to shoulder. Thankfully, I was in the main chamber in a matter of seconds. Inside, the vaulted ceiling was composed of layers of flat stone over flat stone, with no mortar holding anything together.

The tour guide turned off the lights in the tomb and it was pitch black, the blackest black I have ever seen. The guide also turned on a simulation of the light coming into the tomb on the sunrise of the Winter Solstice. There is a lottery every year to decide who actually gets to be in the tomb on the solstice. It would be incredible to see in person!

Finally it was time to leave the tiny chamber, and as I was quickly leading the pack out of the passage, I felt a rush of wind and a loud fluttering near my head. It turns out a sparrow has a nest in the passageway, and she decided to fly out right as I passed her nest. So, it was only a bird, not an ancient spirit flying out.

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Travel Days: From Dublin to Adare and Galway