Trip at a Glance
Company
Boyne Valley Tours
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Locations
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Activities
Car Tour, Sightseeing
Price
$470 USD per trip-
Duration
8 hours
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Avg Distance
170km
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Departure Day(s) and Time(s)
7 days a week @ 8am
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Starting Location
Dublin
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Price Includes
Private tour in a luxury Audi A8 saloon car for up to 3 adults or a family of 4.
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Notes
Entrance charges or lunch not included in price. Private tour for up to 3 adults or a family of 4.
Highlights
- Newgrange and Brú na Bóinne Visitors Centre. Newgrange is a Stone Age monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland. It was built about 3200 BC during the Neolithic period, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is a large circular mound with a stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound is ringed by 'kerbstones' engraved with artwork.
- Monasterboice - a Christian settlement founded in the 5th century. At Monasterboice there are two of the finest High Crosses (Celtic Crosses) in Ireland – the South Cross (or Cross of Muiredach) and the West Cross (or Tall Cross) – which date from the 9th century. The sandstone crosses are finely carved and depict biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Today the image of the High Cross is recognised internationally, not merely as a religious icon but also as a symbol of Irish cultural heritage.
- The Hill of Tara is ceremonial site associated with kingship rituals. From the time of the first Gaelic influence until the Norman invasion in the 12th Century, the Hill of Tara was Ireland's political and spiritual capital. The King of Tara represented a very old ideal of sacred kingship in Ireland, imbued with mythical aura. Many Kings of Tara were also High Kings of Ireland. The summit of the hill is enclosed by a Iron Age enclosure known as the Fort of the Kings. There are two interlinked earthworks within the enclosure, Cormac's House and the Royal Seat. In the middle of the Royal Seat is a standing stone known as the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) at which the High Kings were crowned. According to legend when the true King held the stone, it would let out a screech that could be heard all over Ireland.
- Trim Castle is the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, it was built by Hugh de Lacy when he was granted the Liberty of Meath by King Henry II in 1172. Construction of the massive three storied Keep, the central stronghold of the castle, was begun in 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. Trim Castle was the location for King John's Castle in the film 'Braveheart' the 1995 historical drama directed by and starring Mel Gibson.
- Bective Abbey on the banks of the River Boyne was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by Murchard O’Melaghlin, King of Meath as a 'daughter house' of Mellifont Abbey. It was an abbey of importance as the Abbot was a spiritual lord and sat in the Parliament of the Pale. In 1195 the headless body of Hugh de Lacy (the Anglo-Norman Lord of Meath who built Trim Castle) was reinterred at the Abbey, his head going to St. Thomas' Abbey, Dublin (the head and body were later reunited and reinterred in St. Thomas' in Dublin).
