Today, Myself, Aimee, and the kids headed out at around 9:30 in search of coffee, so we ended up at a drive-through in a village not too far from our town.
There is a major heatwave going on today, and we were going to head to the beach, but then Aimee suggested going to the Viking Heritage site in Wexford, so we headed back to the house and prepared for a mini-road trip.
Ancient Celtic Huts
The entire 33-acre plot is dotted with tons of historically accurate buildings, which take you right from the earliest to the latest.
Thousands of years ago, these types of structures would have been common here, and also through other parts of Europe in that same time period.
Some slightly more modern huts.
These ones feature a slightly more sophisticated structure; they are taller, wider, and rather than simple plant fibres, they have thatched roofs.
Thatched roofs would have been common in Ireland, especially in more rural parts of the country, right up to the 20th century; however, in the last 100 years, they have become incredibly uncommon, and not many people are going into that particular trade.
As time goes on, we evolve and find a better and more practical way of doing things, but there's something about seeing a nice thatched roof.
Inside, some ancient Celts etch out a living
In the first huts, there was no one inside; however, when walking into these larger ones, there are some great displays showing how ancestors may have lived.
I genuinely thought one of these people was going to jump scare us, but no, it turns out they were just mannequins... very detailed ones to be fair.
A Giants Grave
There were structures like this throughout the park, too, and each of them has an information board which discusses their history.
The good god cometh
Now we skip forward to when Christianity came and sorted out all of the filthy pagans and civilised them.
It's cool seeing the kind of old meets new styles of buildings, but this is similar to what many of the towns and settlements would have looked like around this period.
I was reading about it before, and apparently, the Irish around this time period were predominantly nomadic and didn't really settle down in any one place for too long. Clans would have general territories and boundaries, but no major townships.
That is, until the Vikings arrived and built a few major settlements, and attracted locals to come and join a new way of life.
Around that time, or slightly before, there would have been monasteries built by monks, and these monasteries would have also attracted people who would settle beyond the walls.
In fact, Glendalough, not far from us, is one such monastery, and was actually one of the first major settlements in the whole of County Wicklow.
Also, that settlement was apparently where the first recorded murder took place. I should do some digging again and write a post about it, because it's really interesting.
Here is the inside of one of the huts
Kaleb and I were walking in and exploring all of the huts we found. He absolutely loved this entire park and was as fascinated as I was when I visited the place as a kid.
He walked up to these pots and complained that someone had eaten all of the food.
A Viking Ship
Kaleb and I were running around on this roaring... luckily nobody was around.
It was a great day out, filled with interesting history and facts, which come to life because you're looking at it and standing in it.
If you have never visited Ireland, and are planning a trip, definitely check this place out... in fact, even if you live in Ireland and have never heard of this place, check it out.
