Dublin

This was a day for spirits and mummies (!).

 

We visited two distilleries for tours and tastings. The first was Teeling, the first new Dublin distillery in over 125 years. They are making their whiskeys using the traditional pot still method. These are their three beautiful copper pot stills.

 

 

Their whiskey was grand too!

 

Next we visited Pearse Lyons Distillery. This distillery has a lovely location in the totally refurbished historic St James church which had been closed since 1954. The interior is beautifully restored including new stained glass windows depicting the distillation process.

 

 

 

 

Then we changed direction completely and visited St Michan (pronounced Mike-an) Church.

 

 

 

 

Mounted in front of the organ is the 'Organ Trophy', a carved wood panel depicting 17 musical instruments, installed in 1724.

 

 

Built in 1685, on the site of, by some 600 years, the oldest church on Dublin's North Side, the church houses what must be the city's most extraordinary attraction. Due to an unusual combination of magnesium salts in limestone, the crypts beneath the church are without any moisture, resulting in the perfect preservation of those buried within.

 

We climbed down a narrow stone stairway into the dimly-lit stone vaults beneath the church. The long narrow gallery has chambers on either side.

 

 

Some are private chambers, fastened with iron doors or portcullis-type gateways, while others are open. Most of the well-preserved mummified bodies belong to Dubliners who lived during the 17th - 19th centuries. While the corpses in the crypt are well preserved, the coffins are disintegrating.

 

 

Spooky!!

 

 

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