Saturday 28 June 2014

The 6 day trip to Ireland - Dublin - Unusual secret details (Day 6 - midday) - Wood quay to War Memorial area - Bully's acre, St. Patrick's Tower and Church of St. Augustin and St. John -The 15th of June 2014


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We just walked across the road from the Croppies park from which we could clearly see the beautiful Heuston Station façade dating from 1844, as well as the 17th century formal garden before making our way towards the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham where we were looking for another unusual Dublin secret.










We stopped at the Irish Museum of Modern Art premises briefly to get a drink as the heat was intense and we had been walking all morning without having had a single break. The surrounding atmosphere was very welcoming and the moment we sat out in the gardens it was as of we could spend the rest of the afternoon there.





















Set inside the Royal Hospital Kilmainham gate we came across Bully's acre, also known as Dublin's oldest graveyard. It was difficult to imagine such a quiet and peaceful looking place could have actually been the favourite haunting ground for  body-snatchers supplying city surgeons with material for dissection in the 18th and 19th centuries.



























As we walked out we made it along the Bow Lane where quite a few awkward-looking houses and details caught our attention





















Once we reached Thomas street "Guinness" seemed to be a common feature, wherever we looked it was a permanent reminder of its importance. Among the Guinness buildings St. Catherine's church dating from 1769 and two other churches, one of which had a "sold" sign (somehow strange ...). They were all closed so we just had the chance to photograph their façades.































A 46 metre windmill, known as St. Patrick's tower stood proudly and still majestically near Thomas street. Said to have pertained to Roe's distillery, the highest of any distillery in the world in the 18th century. The 1757 windmill was once considered the largest smock windmill in Europe and was lucky not to have been demolished as the other buildings when Roe's ceased its production (in 1926) and its site was taken over by Guinness in 1949.

We didn't have access to its entrance nor the site it is located at, which I felt was a pity.









We continued  walking along Thomas into Cornmarket, where a fairly wide variety of street Art forms was to be seen everywhere.























I had been looking forward to being able to see the mosaics of St. John's Lane Church but to my disappointment the Church was closed. I was nevertheless able to admire its sandstone, granite and limestone, which I found to be of extreme beauty.








































(To be continued)







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