Trinity College – Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College – Dublin, Ireland
On our first day in Ireland we arrived at 5:30 a.m. after an overnight flight to Dublin, Ireland. Our flight was on time and actually easier than I imagined it would be. We took a cab to our hotel with a friendly chatty cab driver. After checking our bags into the hotel we grabbed a city bus down to the city center. It was only about 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. when we arrived at Trinity College! And boy was it cold! We took advantage of our free time to take some photographs of the campus as follows:

After a bit of sunshine…

After wandering around for a bit it was finally time for the Book of Kells exhibit to open.

From the Trinity College website the Book of Kells is described as/photo:

The Book of Kells “Turning Darkness into Light” Exhibition is currently on view in the Colonnades of the Old Library. It can be viewed prior to visiting the original manuscript in the Treasury. The exhibition places the 9th- century manuscript in its historical perspective and allows the visitor to acquire a greater appreciation of the work than is usually possible. Related manuscripts are also on show and may include the Book of Armagh, the Book of Durrow, the Book of Mulling and the Book of Dimma.

It was amazing to see the exhibit, which was done very well, and to actually see the books in person and realize the age of them was amazing. As amazing as this was, what I was about to see next was spectacular and possibly one of my favorite parts of our whole trip. It was the Long Room at Trinity College. I just stood in awe of the size and beauty of this age old library.

From the Trinity College website the Long Room is described as/photo:

The Long Room

The main chamber of the Old Library is the Long Room, and at nearly 65 metres in length, it is filled with 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books. When built (between 1712 and 1732) it had a flat plaster ceiling and shelving for books was on the lower level only, with an open gallery. By the 1850s these shelves had become completely full; largely as since 1801 the Library had been given the right to claim a free copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland. In 1860 the roof was raised to allow construction of the present barrel-vaulted ceiling and upper gallery bookcases.

The only thing that would have made the visit better would have been if we were able to take photographs within the Long Room. But, it was so breathtaking it would have been hard to capture it on film anyway!

Photography via Wikipedia:

XOXO, L