Newgrange and Knowth

Kevin and I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning. Our plan: a day trip to Boyne Valley to tour two Neolithic monuments. Older then the pyramids in Egypt or Stonehenge, the megalithic passage tombs of Newgrange and Knowth are certainly worth visiting.

Based on the difficulty finding information about how to get to the Valley, I'm assuming that most people either drive their own cars or take a packaged tour arranged through Dublin's tourist office. Convinced that I could get their on public transportation, one of the front desk clerks at our hotel* offered to help. She found and printed out all of the bus schedules that we needed.

Via Bus Eireann, Ireland's national bus service, we went from Dublin's main bus station to Drogheda. For four Euros per person, the express bus took about half and hour. On the east coast of Ireland, this industrial and port town is about 35 miles north of Dublin. From Drogheda, we planned to transfer to another bus, which was supposed to take 10 minutes to get to the Brú na Bóinne Visitor's Center near the village of Donore, in the County of Meath.

It was 9:00 AM when we arrived. The second bus, however, didn't start running until 10:15. We joined another pair of tourists — a very nice young couple from Naples — and took a taxi instead. The taxi was only 15 Euros for the four of us.

The taxi delivered us to the visitor center just as it was opening. This was a good thing for us. Since access to each of the monuments is by guided tour only, the number of visitors each day is capped. The number of expected visitors last Sunday was even more then usual since the admission fee was waved in celebration of Heritage week.

From Brú na Bóinne we took a bus to the site of Knowth a few kilometers away. At the site of Knowth is one large mound surrounded by a few smaller mounds. These mounds are over 5000 years old and were built by Neolithic farmers as tombs. Around the base of the mounds are carved curbstones and the top provides an amazing view of the valley. The tour of Knowth lasts about an hour, though I think the very interesting tour guide could spend an entire day showing visitors the site.

Next we took another shuttle bus to Newgrange. Built in 3200 BC, this kidney-shaped mound covers an area of over one acre and is also surrounded by curbstones. The most famous portion of this tomb is the 19-meter passage that leads to an inner chamber. The chamber's corbelled roof, which has never been reconstructed, is perfectly watertight.

The tomb is perfectly astrologically aligned. For five days around the winter solstice, the first rays of morning sunlight illuminate the passage and chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes if the sky is clear. During the tour, visitors enter the passage and get to see a recreation of this amazing event. A lucky 50 people are selected by lottery to be in the chamber on the solstice. Applications are available at the visitor's center.

* Angelina from the Ripley Court Hotel was an amazing help. She went above and beyond for us!