Saturday, May 8, 2010

Beauty like none other


By Jeremy Alistair McCamish

Today we left or hotel in Dublin to go to Galway where we will be staying a single night in a hostel. On our way to Galway we stopped at two very amazing places. First we stopped at Trim Castle where the movie Braveheart had been filmed for a few battles in the movie. It was awesome to see but it was said to find out that the Castle had specifically been rebuilt from the way that it was to a more restored look just for the filming of Braveheart. That didn't stop us from having fun though. Justin and I free climbed over just about every thing we could even though we weren't suppose to.
Yeah Justin and I know how to have fun in Ireland
Also I have never seen or felt such a beautiful breeze of wind. The way it had hit the grassy plains was amazing. It gave a sense of life to a place that had scene alot of death. After that we headed for Clonmacnoise. Clonmacnoise was a site full of religious history. It was run by a group of monastic monks who had been responsible for rebuilding it after each attack that had come. Clonmacnoise had been attacked over 50 times and the majority of the attacks was by the local Irish. Inside the site was Four Churches, Three High Crosses, thousands of buried dead, and over 600 gravemarkers.
The four churches were made up of the main Church, the two churches dedicated to specific saints, and the King's Church. On the North Entrance of the Main Church is an arch doorway known as the Whispering Arch. The monks would use this arch to confess their sins. One monk would be on one side and another monk on the opposite side listening to his confession through the arch. Spencer and I were chosen to test it and it definitely worked. You could hear the whispers as clearly as if they were whispering right in your ear.
Spencer you better not tell anyone what I told you
The three crosses are made up of the North and South Crosses and the Cross of Scriptures (they are sure that there would have been a fourth cross but it has yet to be found). The Cross of Scriptures has scenes from the bible depicted on it. Scenes such as the crucifixion and the rapture. To this day they are still working to restore the churches back to the way they should have looked and they have alot of the original articfacts in the museum, such as the three crosses. Another fun fact about Clonmacnoise is that Pope John II had given a speech their in the 1970's during his own personal pilgrimmage through Ireland. About 30,000 people showed up to see him even though he had never originally planned on going to Clonmacnoise. After leaving Clonmacnoise I saw many beautiful sights. Normally on trips I fall asleep in the bus or car but at this point I couldn't keep my eyes shut. The grassy hills were just so beautiful that I couldn't take my eyes off of them, even if they all looked the same. It almost looked fake it was so amazing. I wished to run all over those hill tops. Amy I wish I could take you around the country side and show you how amazing it is. Then I could see the two most beautiful things I've seen in this world all together. God has truly blessed me.

1 comment:

  1. So beautiful there! Glad you seem to be having good weather. No doubt JJ is jealous that you got to see the place they filmed part of his favorite film. Keep up the blogs. Luv, Mom and Dad

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