The Long Room Library

After leaving the Book of Kells we went up a grand staircase and onto an impressive landing with giant wooden doors. The doors were open   and beyond them was the Long Library.

It is the most impressive library I have ever seen. It is the only library in the world where the books are sorted by size!    All dark wood with a high vaulted ceiling.  At one end on the second floor, not accessible to the public, is the book repair area and behind that, the study area for scholars using the material from the library and another area on the opposite end is for study of the manuscripts that are kept in the basement area of the building. 

In all there are over 200,000 books and 1/2 million manuscripts.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Again no pictures are allowed to be taken so I will look for public domain pictures to give an idea of is beauty.

The construction of the original Building, designed by Thomas Burgh, began in 1712 and was finished in 1732.   After its completion the acquisition of the books which formed the foundation of the library was undertaken and it is now one of the finest collections in the world.  Of course if you had been collecting books for going on three hundred years I would expect you to have a nice collection too. the original ceiling was flat but in the 1800s it was changed to the barrel vault that is there now.

There were glass cases running down the center of the main aisle filled with books. The theme was Mysteries. There were first edtion Miss Marples, Inspector Poirots,  Sherlock Holmes, Ebenezer Scrooge and many many others. There was also murder mystery type paraphernalia.  It was all dreadfully fun and extremely interesting. 

I love libraries anyway but this one is most certainly my favorite. I really wanted to go past the ropes and pick up a volume of anything just to leaf through the pages, but I controlled myself.  I did ask about their location system . Each books dimensions are measured when it comes in to the library and it is then assigned a location based on that.  The largest at the bottom and smallest at the top. Very fun. So the only way you can get a book out is to go to the catalogues with the help of the staff and look up its location on the shelf. of course us everyday folk cannot just go and get a book out. scholars and researchers allowed only.

When we were through there we departed through the gift shop picking up t- shirts and postcards and family histories too.  A most wonderful gift shop with lots to entice.  It was raining outside so we went to the arts building and had a quick bite to eat before heading off to  Hertz to get our car. Thank goodness for umbrellas.