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Newgrange and Knowth, tombs from around 3200 BC, can only be visited with a reservation and from the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre. Tara, Oldbridge and Mellifont are close by.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Guided visit · 2–3 hours including the visitor centre · from €10 · you enter the passage and chamber · booking only, starting from the visitor centre
Walk · 1 h · free · mounds, earthworks and the coronation stone on a hill with views over the Meath plain
Guided visit · 1 h 30 · €10 with the exhibition · one visit a day in spring and autumn · no access to the chambers
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
From April to June and in September and October, when there are more visits a day and tickets are released 30 days ahead. In July and August they sell out sooner. In winter there is only the Newgrange visit with the exhibition, and from 18 to 22 December normal visits are suspended for the solstice.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Brú na Bóinne is a good hour north of Dublin, and the airport is on the way: if you hire a car when you land, you can be at Newgrange by mid-morning. Without a car, stay in Dublin and come on an organised tour, which sorts out your ticket, always in short supply in season.
The Boyne Valley is car country: the sights are ten to twenty minutes from one another along minor roads, and public transport does not link them. With a car from Dublin, a good hour along the M1, you can do Newgrange in the morning and Tara or Mellifont in the afternoon, or sleep in Slane and spread it over two days.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Children are hooked by the idea of walking into a five-thousand-year-old tomb along a stone passage, and the shuttle bus and the guide make the visit easy going. Tara is a hill made for running; Oldbridge and Mellifont are good for stretching your legs with a bit of history.
For teenagers, the hook is the scale of time: Newgrange is older than the pyramids of Giza, and at Knowth the carved stones have spirals that nobody quite knows the meaning of. If they are interested in history, the Battle of the Boyne explains conflicts that reach right up to today.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Hotel in the centre of Slane, ten minutes from Brú na Bóinne, with double, triple and family rooms and a restaurant open every day.
Why we like it: Georgian house with suites, rooms in the main house and cottages around the courtyard, near Slane, with the Brabazon restaurant in its garden. One for a special occasion.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: lunch after Newgrange, with local seasonal produce.
What to order: afternoon tea if you are coming from Newgrange, or dinner if you are staying on the estate.
Map
The places to stay and services on the map are the ones for the way you travel. Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
53.45° N · 6.15° W
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53.35° N · 6.26° W
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53.19° N · 6.17° W
By planeBy carCar-free
53.01° N · 6.33° W
By planeCar-freeBy car
Tips
Tickets are released at 00:00, Irish time (the same as the Canary Islands, one hour behind mainland Spain).
Every morning from 8:30 to 9:30 and every afternoon from 15:00 to 16:00.
You have to collect your ticket and catch the shuttle on time.
The mounds are in the open air with no shelter.
In a bend of the River Boyne, north of Dublin, three great passage tombs, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, were built around 3200 BC, surrounded by dozens of smaller mounds. The complex, called Brú na Bóinne, is a World Heritage Site and holds the largest collection of megalithic art in western Europe. Newgrange, with its white stone façade and the roof-box through which the midwinter solstice sun enters, is the most sought-after visit.
This is the first thing to sort out, because without a reservation you will usually be left outside:
The visit changes with the season: from March to early November the main one is the Brú na Bóinne Tour with the Newgrange chamber (adult €18); in winter it is Newgrange with the exhibition (€10). Knowth has a single visit a day, and only in some seasons. The visitor centre exhibition can be seen without booking.
Without a car and without hassle, Mary Gibbons's day tour from Dublin includes entry to the Newgrange chamber and the Hill of Tara.
By car, a little over an hour along the M1 towards Drogheda and the turn-off for Donore; there is parking next to the centre. Dublin airport is on the way. Public transport does not connect the sites in the valley well: if you do not drive, the organised tour is the practical option.
With a car, one day is enough for Newgrange in the morning and two of these in the afternoon:
If you stay in Slane, you can spread it over two days and take the first visit of the morning.
Questions
Only for the visitor centre exhibition. For Newgrange and Knowth you must book at heritageireland.ie, and in season they sell out.
30 days ahead for visits from April to early November and 7 days ahead from November to March, at midnight Irish time.
Yes, into the passage and the chamber, with a guide. They are low and narrow and photography is not allowed. At Knowth you do not enter the chambers.
From 18 to 22 December there are special early openings and normal visits are suspended. Check the official website.
On a day tour from Dublin; Mary Gibbons's costs €80 with tickets included.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/ireland/bru-na-boinne
