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Meet in Dublin City Centre | |
Boyne Valley Megalithic Monuments – Unesco World Heritage Site (admission extra).
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Lunch at Trim Castle Hotel (Travelers Expense) | |
The Hill of Tara:
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Depart for Dublin City Centre | |
Additional Costs * Lunch not included in tour price. * Admission to Newgrange €10, max. number 10. |
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Only Avaialble as a Private Tour |
![]() My name is Liam. I am the cofounder of Sacred Irish Tours. I am a former educator, business executive and entrepreneur with a lifelong interest in finding answers to the big questions of life: Who am I …Why am I here? |
The megalithic passage tomb called the Mound of the Hostages (Duma na nGiall) is the oldest monument on the Hill of Tara dating back to between 3500 B.C. and 3000 B.C. The passage, 4m in length and 1m wide, was subdivided by sill stones into three compartments each containing cremated remains.
A wonderfully decorated stone can be viewed from the entrance gate. The engravings may represent the sun, moon or stars as religious symbols or maybe the stone was used as a prehistoric calendar. Drawing of decorated orthostat.
Trim Castle, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, was constructed over a thirty-year period by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter. Hugh de Lacy was granted the Liberty of Meath by King Henry II in 1172 in an attempt to curb the expansionist policies of Richard de Clare, (Strongbow). Construction of the massive three storied Keep, the central stronghold of the castle, was begun c. 1176 on the site of an earlier wooden fortress. This massive twenty-sided tower, which is cruciform in shape, was protected by a ditch, curtain wall and moat.
The Megalithic Passage Tombs of Newgrange and Knowth are located in the present day County of Meath on the east coast of Ireland. The Boyne Valley Mounds at Knowth and Newgrange were built around 3200BC making them older than Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Built by Neolithic farming communities about 5000 years ago, the passage tombs have clear astronomical alignments such as the Winter Solstice Sunrise at Newgrange and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes sunrises at Knowth.