On Saturday we went to Four Knocks. Mr. Waffle refused to believe that such a place existed. But it does. It comes from the Irish, na Fuarchnoic which means the cold hills. It’s a passage grave but it’s not a particularly well-known site.
You get into it by picking up the key from a local.
We didn’t tell the children what it was but as we approached it, the Princess said, “It’s a passage grave, isn’t it? Like Newgrange.” Some people are very smart.
When we got there, we opened up the door in the hill with our key.
We went in and closed the door. As our eyes grew used to the gloom the light shining through the roof illuminated the neolithic carvings on the lintel stones.
Unlike, Newgrange, the children were free to run around with the torch (essential piece of kit for this outing) and shout and roar. Obviously, this kind of thing is off putting if there are other people about. But we were all on our own.
And then afterwards, they could roll off the top.
It was really excellent and appealed to all members of the family in slightly different ways.
And then we went to Ardgillan Castle for a cup of tea and a look at the playground. And that was very pleasant too.
how cool is that? What fun. Slightly tough luck on mr. Fintan White but presumably he’s paid for his troubles
I assume so, but that was unclear. We got the key from Mrs. Fintan White who didn’t seem especially inclined to chat but she did say that they never went on holidays. But maybe that’s because they have a farm rather than anything the OPW is paying them.