Trinity Collage was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. It is Ireland's oldest university and counts Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde, along with many others great thinkers and writers, amongst it past students. This 16th-century complex is home to many glorious buildings, beautifully manicured lawns. Cobbled squares and the campus of the university of Ireland. The celebrated book of Kells, which dates from the 8th century and is considered to be one of the oldest books in the world, is housed in the collage's colonnades gallery.

Trinity College is easily reached just across the river following O’Connell Street. Cross the bridge and follow the buses. It is very close to Grafton Street, the main shopping area. If you see the Tart with the Cart (Molly Malone statue) you’ve passed it. Entry is through large wooden doors, making you feel like you are entering a fortress, not a college. The grounds are large inside with a large courtyard and buildings all around. Signage is only fair, but you can opt for a walking tour. Times are posted just inside the entrance along with a lot of other interesting items. The tour includes the history of Trinity and stories about famous graduates and activities. The tours run about every 40 minutes throughout the day.

A general map of the grounds can be found at the college site. The Book of Kells, by far the most visited attraction is located in the Trinity College Library, located to the right and back from the main entrance. Be sure to wander through the great hall of the library after viewing the Book of Kells. The hall contains high ceilings with rows of high shelves. Down the aisle are interesting displays of various antiquities and busts of famous authors.

Trinity College started as a Protestant school interestingly enough, but now has no restrictions on who can attend. The buildings span a variety of architectural styles, but all are interesting to examine. The campanile or bell tower in the center of the square is especially interesting and dates from 1853.

I wasn’t quite prepared for what was involved in seeing the Book of Kells. I guess I just thought you would walk in and pay a fee and look at the Book. As a matter of fact since Al didn’t even know what the Book of Kells was, we decided that he would wait outside and read his book while I did my thing. I paid my fee and made it as far as the first display before I realized that this was way more than I had thought. I went out and got Al and brought him in.

If seeing the Book of Kells wasn’t enough to take your breath away, you are sent upstairs to see the Long Room. It is 209 feet long and forty feet wide and with book cases that reach to the very high barrel vaulted ceiling. All of these large bookcases are filled with antiquarian books. It is a very impressive sight indeed. Unfortunately there are no pictures allowed . Also in the Long Room there are cases with some of the many books that are part of their collection. Every year an additional 100,000 books are added to the over 5 million that they already own. Also on display is a very old Irish harp that is reputed to have belonged to Brian Boru. This is the harp that is the inspiration for the Guinness logo.

The display that made me bring Al in is called "Turning Darkness into Light" . It sets up the background for the treasure that is to follow. We learn about and view examples of the art of illumination as practiced by the monks on the Isle of Iona. The Book of Kells has long been attributed to these monks who were there under the auspices of St. Colum Cille in the 6th century. The Book dates from the 9th century. Whether or not the monks from Iona were still on Iona or at Kells in county Meath is not know with any certainty. What is certain is that this is probably the finest surviving example of illumination in the world.

The Book of Kells was sent to Dublin during the reign of Cromwell for safety reasons and to Trinity College in 1661 through the Bishop of Meath.

The whole exhibit is amazing. It really is breathtakingly beautiful and you really can visit it time and again because they do change the pages that are on view.

There are other objects on view including other manuscripts, coins, broaches, etc.

There is a really phenomenal gift shop. You can easily spend a half hour just browsing around. If you have time, walk around Trinity College itself. For so many years this college forbid Catholics from attending and when they were allowed, the Pope didn’t allow Catholics to attend. But all this has passed and now all are welcome even women.

We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. We had just been to the National Gallery of Ireland and left through the new wing onto Clare Street. Across the road we could see a sign indicating the Book of Kells. We followed the signs which took us to the Old Library where the Book of Kells is to be found.Entrance is into a rather cramped gift shop where a ticket to see the Book of Kells can be purchased. It was €16 for a family of four and included admission to the Long Room and the exhibit. No photography was allowed in the Old Library.A self guided tour of the Book of Kells explains in detail what they are about, how they were made and what to look for before you actually see them. The Book of Kells was written around the year 800 AD and considered one of the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts in the world. It contains the four gospels in Latin accompanied by pages of magnificent and intricate decoration. Some of the details like two mice tugging on the host are curious and unexplained. The Book is bound in four volumes. The volumes are displayed under glass, two when we were there, and opened to show decorated pages and pages of script. Along with the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, an 8th century gospel manuscript and the Book of Armagh, a 9th century gospel manuscript, were also on display.It was all very informative and the illuminated pages are amazing. I needed to wait for my turn to get right up to the displayed books and take a close look but it was worth the wait. The brightness of the colour and the texture is amazing to see after all these years.When you leave the display, you are led into the Long Room, an overwhelming room of the Old Library where stacks of antique books are crowded into shelves going up to the ceiling which rises two stories. The dark wood and brown volumes make the room feel massive. Busts of famous scholars and writers and the oldest Irish harp, the inspiration for the Guinness symbol, are also on display. Unfortunately, you cannot walk among the shelves. I would have liked to see what all those books were about but the aged colour and faded printing on the spine made it too difficult to read from behind the cordoned line which kept visitors to the center of the room.You leave the Long Room back down to the gift shop which is stuffed full of souvenirs of Trinity College, the Book of Kells, including a CD-ROM so you can see the entire book, post cards of the Long Room and Dublin and Irish mementos. We spent quite a while poking through all the items looking for things to purchase to take home.

Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland and among the older ones in Europe. One of the virtues of being founded so early (1592) is that you get to claim a prime spot in the heart of the city. And Trinity College is right in the middle of things, its large green spaces protected from the bustle of central Dublin by buildings dating as far back as 1712.

That's all well and good, but the reason most casual visitors stop by this place is the Book of Kells, an elaborately illustrated Latin translation of the four gospels of the New Testament. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures of it. And since they only display two pages at a time -- one of illustrations, and another of text -- you're not going to be able to see the whole thing. They do change the pages that are on display regularly.

Before you reach the book, you walk through an exhibit on its history. This was pretty interesting. It described the processes that would have been involved back then in making a book like this, such as the kind of materials used and how these were acquired. One of the inks, for instance, came from lapis lazuli, whose only known source at the time was a mine in Afghanistan. It also talks about who wrote the book and where it has been over the years.

But why look at just one book when you can see thousands. After you emerge from the Book of Kells viewing area, you come to the old library of Trinity College. Stacks and stacks of old books, piled to the ceiling. It made me wonder, how did anybody ever find anything before Google?

Also on display at the library is the oldest harp in Ireland, which is apparently the model for the Guinness logo. You can't play it, though. There are model harps in the gift shop that you can play. But be careful, they are easily and noisily knocked over.