Gwilliam Gazette : Brit Isles

We woke up in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (pronounced Dun-Leery). We hoped on a local train and rode for about 20 minutes to Dublin. Our first stop was Trinity College.

Trinity College has lots of Harry Potter looking buildings and is Ireland's oldest University started in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth 1 and it was patterned after Oxford and Cambridge and admission is based solely on academics.

In 1662, Great Britain passed a law that required a copy of every book published in the United Kingdoms to have a copy sent to the "King's Library" for safe keeping and historical purposes. The law went on to include 6 libraries in the UK that received a copy of each book, one of which is the library at Trinity College. The library was receiving 100,000 books every year and up until recently, many of those books were on display in the "Long Hall" of the library. With over 5 million books currently, they were running out of space. Almost 2 years ago, each book is being removed, one by one, cleaned and digitized. Due to the fire at Notre-Dame several years ago, it was decided the library at Trinity College would also have a fire system installed during this time as the building is completely made of wood and if it caught on fire, millions of books would be lost.

The main book people go to see at Trinity College, is the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells (Kells is a place), is an original 9th century (800 AD) illustrated manuscript of the New Testament and written in Latin. Of course it's under lock and key, and every 6 weeks one page is turned so as not to bleach out the page. The text is highly illustration with precision and skill not seen in any written book, even today.

First we had a tour of campus explaining the history of the buildings

We were not allowed to take pics of the actual book, but here is what some of the illustrations look like

Interestingly enough, the two pages the book was on when we went was some that had peacocks!

Only the first few sets of shelves currently have books on them still

One of three original medieval harps is also on display at the library

Here are some of the samples of books that have been taken down for cleaning and digitizing. There are 30,000 of these boxes:

There are so many castles in the British Isles, with many many in Ireland. We wanted to branch out from the "normal" castles, so I found one that not too many people see.

We boarded a bus and were off to Drimnagh Castle.

About 15 minutes later, we got off in what looked like a regular neighborhood with a school just off the road. No castle in sight. But I knew better. We turned the corner down a little side road, and there was the castle. It's not a big castle, but has character. It's also the only castle in Ireland that still has a working mote.

They give tours if someone is around, but to make sure someone is around, you have to call - not text, not email, not WhatsApp, has to be the phone. And you have to call a week ahead and then the day before to make sure the person is still going to be there. If you show up unannounced, they will not give you a tour, even if someone is there. I made sure to follow the rules.

The earliest known owner of the castle was Sir Hugh de Bernival is listed as the owner as of the year 1216. The castle remained in the family for centuries.

In the 1950's the castle was sold and used as a local school and church. By the mid-1980's, the castle was abandoned and had fallen into disrepair with walls falling down, roof and tower collapsing and it was bought by a the national trust of Ireland, and started restoring the castle. All the work done was completed by hand, as it would have been when it was first built.

The castle's claim to fame was that part of Ella Enchanted was filmed here.