Dublin Top Twenty Challenge
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is a challenge cache, the cache is hidden at the given coordinates but to log a find you must fullfill the criteria set out below.
The challenge: Groundspeak have introduced a Favorites feature which aims to seek out the best of the best caches and tracks those that a premium member enjoyed the most with 1 point awarded for every 10 caches found. The caches that have been awarded the most points stand above the rest for various reasons, perhaps its in an area of outstanding natural beauty or near a striking national landmark. In any case you can be assured that these caches are well worth the visit and perhaps will become one of your favorites too! This cache takes it's inspiration from barraseaclaid's "Ireland Top Ten Challenge" and indeed some of the text here has been shamelessly plaguerised from his cache page So what are Dublin's Top Twenty Caches? The current top twenty can be found as follows: 1. From the geocaching.com homepage click Hide & Seek A Cache 2. Search by Country: and select Ireland from the drop down list and click GO 3. On the next page select Dublin and click Search for Geocaches 4. Now click the blue ribbon filter along the top of the header column The top twenty caches will be displayed in descending order. If you are not a premium member you will not have the facility to sort in this way. If non premium members wish to lock in a list contact me via my profile and I will send a list on to you. At the time you decide to accept the challenge you must do the following: 1. Post a note on the cache page listing the top twenty caches in Dublin for that day, this is your "challenge list" It might be no harm to include one or two extras to allow for caches being archived or disabled. If a cache on your list is archived and you have no reserves it will be necessary to resubmit a new list. Once you have locked your list by submitting a note on the cache page you can ignore future changes to the list. 2. Find and log those caches (the easy part!) 3. When you have found all twenty post a note or bookmark list showing your completed list. 4. Find the final (alternatively find all twenty and the final and include your challenge list in the final cache log) The Rules, 1) All cache types are included 2) Other challenge caches are excluded 3) The qualifying caches must have there location set as Dublin, Ireland. Older caches with just Ireland set as their location are excluded. If the owners subsequently update the location to Dublin, Ireland, the cache can then be included. This shouldn't be an issue at present as I don't believe any of these caches would make it onto the Top Twenty List. 4) Previous finds are included 5) If their is more than one cache tied for 20th place you can use any of these caches (or them all if you wish) 6) All caches listed on www.geocaching.com as being in Dublin, Ireland count. Caches which have their location set to "Ireland" only are excluded 7) If you are the CO of one or more of your top twenty list, your own cache cannot be used as a qualifier so you will have to use one from further down the list. You should indicate this when locking in your list 8) Any finds logged on this challenge cache without a qualifying list will be deleted without comment. You can sign the logbook before qualifying but cannot log it on geocaching.com until the challenge has been completed. 9) While this cache's sister caches for Leinster and Ulster and indeed the All Ireland challenge upon which they are based only require a top ten, this challenge requires the top twenty. This is because of the much smaller geographical area. 10) Any further questions can be sent to me through my profile, they will be answered immediately and the cache page updated if necessary. GCJKTN GARDINERS TREAT IS CURRENTLY EXCLUDED AS A QUALIFIER DUE TO ONGOING ISSUES WITH THE WEBCAM,FINDERS CAN SELECT THE NEXT HIGHEST CACHE TO COMPLETE THEIR TOP TWENTY The Location: The cache is hidden in the heart of beautiful Ardgillan Demesne in North County Dublin, near the ice house. It is a regular sized container hidden at the base of a large tree, please replace the cache and cover exactly as found after logging the find. The given D/T rating reflects the ratings of the qualifying caches, however a rating of 2/2 would more accurately reflect it's location in the demesne. Ardgillan Castle is a distinctive country house, set in a 194-acre demesne near Balbriggan in Co. Dublin. The house was built by the Reverend Robert Taylor in 1738 and remained in the Taylor family until 1962. In 1982 the house became the property of the local authority of Fingal County Council and opened its doors to the public for the first time. The house features castellated embellishments and overlooks the picturesque Barnageera Beach, the Irish Sea and Skerries. The castle consists of two storeys over a basement, which extends under the south lawns. Ardgillan Castle provides guided tours and hosts exhibitions throughout the years. The ground floor rooms and kitchens are open to visitors for guided tours. Tea-rooms are located off the main reception area, and serving light snacks are open in conjunction with the Castle opening times. Upstairs, the former bedrooms are used for classes and exhibitions including a permanent and unique exhibition of the “Down Survey” colour maps and text. Rooms are also available for small group meetings and workshops. Ardgillan Demesne comprises a mix of woodlands and large grass open spaces including a walled garden featuring a herb garden, vegetable garden, rose garden, potentilla garden and Victorian conservatory, tearooms and an ice house. The site also benefits from a state-of-the-art children’s playground, which was added to the Demesne in 2006. This facility provides a steady stream of visitors to the park both recurring and incidental and adds greatly to the various gardens and parkland attractions onsite. Today the demesne is a stunning visitor attraction with a range of facilities the public can avail of ICE HOUSES Ice houses originally invented in Persia were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the invention of the refrigerator. The most common designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice house and packed with insulation, often straw or sawdust. It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of perishable foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared Ice was often imported into the UK from Scandinavia up until the 1950s. Usually only large manor houses had purpose-built buildings to store ice. Many examples of ice houses exist in the UK some of which have fallen into disrepair. The ice house was introduced to Britain around 1660. British ice houses were commonly brick lined, domed structures, with most of their volume underground. Ice houses varied in design depending on the date and builder, but were mainly conical or rounded at the bottom to hold melted ice. They usually had a drain to take away any water. It is recorded that the idea for ice houses was brought to Britain by travellers who had seen similar arrangements in Italy, where peasants collected ice from the mountains and used it to keep food fresh inside caves
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gnxr n fgrc hc, ng gur onfr bs gur svefg ynetr gerr gb gur evtug bs gur "cngu"