Trinity college and Mulahide Castle

Today started off with a walk to the trinity university campus, we were amongst the first few to line up to see the book of Kells, it was definitely worth the short wait to get in, it was absolutely amazing, of course they wouldn't let you take photos, so I don't have a photo for you but if you google it, there are many images available on the web.

 

We were fortunate to have be waiting outside whilst a tour guide operator was educating his group about the book, the book was originally encased in a leather cover that was coated in gold and jewels, during one of their raids the Vikings, obtained the book, fortunately they had no interest in its contents so they ripped the cover off and dumped the book in a recently plowed field, the farmer soon discovered it and returned it to the monastery.

The other Interesting thing we overheard was that they only change the page once every two months and it takes between 6 - 8 hrs, as the room were the book resides needs to be air locked and dehumidified prior to the case the book is in is opened.

 After seeing the book we headed up stairs to the long library.

Oh my gosh, it was the most wonderful room, as you can see the library is huge and is filled with the most interesting books, which we could of course not touch. But I just loved the room and it's bookie smell, I know lots of people whom would happily be locked in this room, myself included.

After a lot of shopping in the college gift shop, we grabbed some lunch.

And boarded a double decker red bus , to head out to 

Mulhide castle.

Mulhide castle was first established in 1185, when Richard Talbot a Knight in the service of Henry 2nd was bestowed the lands for his service to the king.  The Talbot family maintained almost complete ownership of the castle for 791 years.

Throughout the years the Talbot family added to their castle creating the home you see today.

during the battle of the Boyne period, 14 members of the Talbot family sat around this table for breakfast, by evening they had all died. Sadly the last two members of the family Milo and his sister Grace never had children and thus with them ended the Talbot line. Milo was a keen botanist and was particularly interested in tropical and Australasian plants. When Milo passed away. Grace inherited the estate, however she could not afford the taxes so she sold the home to office of public works and she moved to the family property in Tasmania.

After leaving Mulahide , we travelled to Knowth , a village and outer suburb of Dublin. Sadly we didn't have a lot of time there, but our guide assured us that it's the one of the best places in Ireland to get seafood chowder and fish and chips.

It had a huge Marina with hundreds of fishing boats and some lovely old shops and homes and is a popular place for Dubliners to visit on the weekend

sláinte mhaith 

( good health, in Gaelic)

Googy girl