Irish National Heritage Park Guided Tour

Service Description

Our tour guides, in their medieval costumes, are brim full of facts, figures, dates and great stories, covering 9,000 years of Ireland’s pre-history and history. There are three separate tours that run throughout the day. Each tour focusses on a different era of Ireland’s past. General admission Pre-Historic Ireland: 10.15am & 1:30pm. Who were the first human inhabitants of Ireland and where did they come from? As archaeological detective work continues, we are learning more and more about the first people to inhabit the island of Ireland. Even the dates are being pushed back well beyond 9,000 years. These first settlers were hunter-gatherers and their way of life lasted for well over 3,000 years. Their diet and quality of life was very good, so good in fact that today’s nutritionists and dieticians are advising us to eat a lot of similar foods. Early Christian Ireland: 11:00am & 2:15pm. Ogham Stones are associated with the many Irish tribes that settled on the west coast of Britain in the early centuries AD. Christianity, which was well established in Ireland before St. Patrick arrived, had a massive impact on Ireland. There were a lot of monasteries whose ruins can still be seen across the countryside. The remains of ringforts and cashels are also numerous. It’s reckoned that between 40,000-50,000 built across the Island of Ireland. A great many Irish place names contain the words ‘Rath’ or ‘Lios’, which indicates there was a ringfort or cashel in that area at one time. Cattle were the backbone of the Irish economy at this time. While there were no towns, some monasteries were starting to take on the appearance of towns and were amassing great wealth. This period saw not only the rise of Christianity in Ireland, but also significant developments in agriculture and technology Age of Invasion: 12:00pm & 3:15pm. Between the late 8th Century and the mid-12th Century, two new groups arrived in Ireland. This period is what is known as The Age of Invasion. The first were the Vikings and we know, from the Monastic Annals, that they first attacked Ireland in the year 795. Warfare was widespread in Ireland throughout its history, so when the Vikings arrived what was most horrifying to the Irish, and to people across Europe in general, was that these Scandinavian warriors were pagan. For the first 100 years or so they were regularly beaten in battle by Irish Kings. In time, they were drawn into the Irish way of life,

Contact Details