Brú na Bóinne: Newgrange and Knowth

Brú na Bóinne, the palace of the Boyne, is one of the most important prehistoric landscapes in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a visit here is a genuine highlight of any trip to Ireland. In a bend of the River Boyne in County Meath, about an hour's drive north of Dublin, Neolithic farmers built three great passage tombs, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, along with dozens of smaller monuments, around 3200 BC. That makes them older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza. Newgrange is the most famous: a vast circular mound faced with white quartz and ringed by huge kerbstones, many decorated with spirals and other carvings, including the extraordinary entrance stone. A narrow stone passage leads nineteen metres into the mound to a cross-shaped chamber under a corbelled roof that has kept out the rain for more than five thousand years. Above the entrance is a small opening called the roof box, aligned so that at sunrise around the winter solstice a beam of light travels up the passage and illuminates the chamber floor. Knowth, nearby, has the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe on its kerbstones and is surrounded by smaller satellite tombs. Visits begin at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre on the south bank of the river, with an exhibition explaining who built the monuments and how, and continue by shuttle bus to the monuments for a guided tour. You cannot go directly to Newgrange or Knowth; you will be turned away. The OPW strongly warns that tickets must be pre-booked on its official booking site, as they are limited and resold or third-party tickets are not valid.

Booking strategy: this is one of the hardest tickets in Ireland, so plan ahead. From early April to the start of November, tickets are released thirty days in advance; from November to the end of March, the window is seven days. Tickets go on sale at midnight Irish time. Cancelled tickets come back into the system, and the OPW advises checking between about 08:30 and 09:30 and again in mid-afternoon. In the winter season, from early November to the end of February, only the Newgrange Tour with the exhibition runs; from March to the start of November, the main option is the Brú na Bóinne tour with access to the Newgrange chamber, plus a limited daily Knowth tour, which does not enter its chambers. Children and infants need tickets, and under-18s must be accompanied by an adult.

On the day: arrive at the visitor centre in good time for your shuttle. The Newgrange passage is low and narrow, and anyone uncomfortable in tight spaces should know that before booking; wheelchair users should email the site in advance. Photography is not permitted inside the passage and chamber. The monuments are outdoors with no shelter, so bring rain gear. Inside the chamber, guides recreate the solstice sunrise with electric light, which is surprisingly moving. Around the real solstice, in the days before Christmas, places in the chamber are allocated by a free lottery run each year, regular tours are suspended, and the site closes for several days over Christmas.

Getting there and combining: driving is easiest, about an hour from the city via the M1. Without a car, check the public bus options to Drogheda and onward taxis, or a guided Boyne Valley tour; if you choose a tour, confirm it includes tickets bought through the official system rather than promising entry it cannot guarantee. The Boyne Valley is rich in other sites: the Hill of Tara, seat of the ancient high kings; the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge; and the medieval monastic ruins at Mellifont and Monasterboice, with its towering high crosses. Combine two or three for a full day of Irish history from the Stone Age to the seventeenth century.