Newgrange
5000 years old, Newgrange is located in the Boyne Valley. A world listed heritage site, Newgrange is a Neolithic Ritual Centre and Passage Tomb with architectural links to the prehistoric maritime peoples of Portugal, Northern Spain, Brittany, Denmark and the Western Isles.
This building is a thousand years older than the Pyramids and the oldest astronomical observatory in the world, completely intact since the Stone Age. Its decorated entrance stone and Corbelled inner chamber display the most impressively executed examples of abstract Stone Age art of the early farming communities in Western Europe.
These sophisticated early farmers were Astronomers who incorporated a light box and solar calendar into the passage. This was done to illuminate the cremated bones of the dead in the inner chamber during the Winter Solstice. It was also a symbolic technique to celebrate rebirth in the afterlife and the dawning of a new year.
Please note: We enter the Tomb at Newgrange. On this tour you will not be waiting in line, as I have an allocated time slot.
River Boyne (in the Valley of The Kings)
Learn of the famous battle, a watershed in Irish and European history (it changed the balance of power in Europe from the French to the Dutch in 1690), while enjoying a leisurely drive along the banks of the River Boyne.
Hill of Tara
Stand on the Hill of Tara, the ancient Royal site of the Irish High Kings, where 142 Kings were crowned. You will see 23 of Ireland's 32 counties.
The Village of Slane
The cradle of Irish Christianity - where St. Patrick lit the Paschal Fire.
Please note: It is highly advisable that you wear good walking shoes for the duration of the tour.
Click here to see lecture at Harvard University by Michael Gibbons, brother of Mary Gibbons and one of Ireland's leading field archaeologists
Click here to read article by Michael, Historical Settlement Patterns in Rural Ireland, illustrating the historical setting of our Newgrange tour
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