Walking Back to the Entrance of the Hill of Tara
My visit to the Hill of Tara was even shorter than I anticipated. Maybe it was because I wasn’t really into Irish History, though I would admit that this part of Irish History is more fascinating than the more modern history. To me, the Hill of Tara, for all its sacredness in history, feels more like a bad golf course. There were the occasional Stone of Destiny and the Mound of the Hostages which is probably the only two prominent landmarks in this area. Most of the time visitors will just be trying to navigate the undulating terrain. Part of this terrain was ruined when some rather imaginative British Israelites began excavating here saying that the Irish was part of the lost tribe of Israel and that the ark of the covenant was buried here. There was no ark and all that was left were the diggings which by now have been covered up with grass.
Mound of the Hostages at the Hill of Tara
For sure there were more interesting structures here since it would have been impossible to just rule over Ireland without any shelter even if you were a High King. The remains of the foundations of former structures where found here and signs say that they would have been quite impressive. It could have been that the structures were built of material which doesn’t last. Then again, if they were able to build Newgrange, why not a palace? Maybe it was too cold even for the High Kings to stay in, the winds were quite strong here and there was nothing to block the winds given how high the hill was.
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