A pyramid in Ireland?

Yep, that’s right! Was woken by a fire alarm at 4am, so after breakfast drove to Arklow see the only pyramid in Ireland. It was described by English writer Sir John Betjeman as “the largest pyramid beyond the banks of the Nile.” When Ralph Howard, Viscount of County Wicklow, had his family’s pyramid built in 1785, he did so at the height of neoclassicism. The pyramid has 33 slabs for coffins, but only about half the slots are occupied. It’s said that the last body interred in the pyramid was that of an infant. The residents of Arklow reported hearing a baby’s cries coming from the cemetery at night, which only ceased once the corpse had been removed and interred elsewhere and the pyramid was sealed for all time in 1823. Great find! I then drove onto Wicklow to visit the spot where St Patrick arrived on Travelahawk beach, where one of his monks had his teeth knocked out by a stone from the locals, hence Wicklow is the Gaelic name for toothless one! Then onto the 1697 Kilmacurragh House, which was built by Thomas Acton from stone from the ruins of a medieval abbey. Acton’s father had been given the property by Oliver Cromwell, who had seized it shortly after invading Ireland in the mid-17th century. But the house was wrecked in a fire and is waiting an unlikely restoration. What was really interesting is that the house is in the Botanic Gardens at Kilmacurragh, and what is really, really exciting is that in this garden there are 6 Australian Wollemi Pines, which are actually breeding with fertile male cones. Incredible, when you realise there are only 46 adult breeding trees left in the world. My last stop for the day was the Round Tower of Glendalough which are in the ruins of a monastery founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin. Kevin is an interesting patron saint of Ireland, as he lived alone in a cave, slept on rocks, dressed in animal skins and died at the age of 120.