The healing place of the soul

Sometimes you discover a lovely new place and wonder how it can have been there for all those years without you knowing.

This room, full of centuries-old books, has existed since 1771, and you can still feel the ghosts of the generations of scholars who frequented it and the generations of bookbinders who made it so beautiful.

I spent a long time just admiring the shelves and the spines.

Looking inside a book is a ceremony conducted with the help of a librarian. White gloves protect the delicate pages from the taint of your hands. Works printed in 1480 are for your eyes and your soul only.

Visit if you can. It's Armagh Public Library - both a working reference library and a museum. 

Calm, beautiful, venerable and restorative. As is carved above its doorway, a healing place of the soul.