Jeebus... where to start on this one!? Newgrange is a 5000 year old tombe and religious site...erm…read morewe think! As with all such sites (the pyrimids in Egypt and Stonehenge in the UK are comprable examples) we can only guess at what the builders had in mind. To say we are lucky to have a site as impressive and important as this on our doorstep (about an hour and a bit from Dublin) is a huge understatement, it looks as impressive is it should be after a reconstruction some 30 years ago by a bunch of very very clever archaeologists. the results can be viewed by booking in advance and putting your name down for the 3 year waiting lists to be there at the summer and winter solstices. Opening times February - April: Daily 09.30 - 17.30. May: Daily 09.00 - 18.30. June - Mid September: Daily 09.00 - 19.00. Mid - End September: Daily 09.00 - 18.30. October: Daily 09.30 - 17.30. November - January: Daily 09.00 - 17.00.

If you come to Dublin this UNESCO world heritage site is a "must see". Everything I want to say…read morewill just be repeating the many good reasons to come here so read beyond my post and I'll keep mine short. - 5,000 year old tombs (New Grange, Knowth & Dowth) that are older than the pyramids and you can actually go inside New Grange. - 60% of Western Europe's neolithic art is found in the area. - inside the New Grange tomb is like going back in time, keep in mind these tombs were built with no modern tools at all and yet they knew how to build them and align the entrance on some, so they light up during the solstice. - friendly, knowledgeable guides. - well organised, small groups are taken in by bus rather than a mob of people overrunning the place so you can actually see and take it all in. - buy your tickets online and go early - a great Visitors Center gives you the backstory of the tomb's history before your tour.

Absolutely fantastic collection of Irish historical finds…read more The bogs of Ireland preserved things such as fish traps, textiles, lots of gold jewelry, and, most notably, some human beings. The acidic and anaerobic nature of the peat bog was so effective at preserving these bodies that we even knew what the men had been eating. And even more interesting - the methods that had been used to MURDER them so long ago. Because these men had not just randomly fallen into the bog, oh no; there are all sorts of things to learn including why the nipples were cut off! But I will refrain from going in to more detail. If you are interested, and are in Dublin, you MUST go there yourself. It is free so you have no excuse not to. Well, unless you are not interested in things such as I described here. Whatever. Note: there is not a cafe in the museum, and no storage lockers for your bag. Also, I thought the gift shop was pretty boring as it had very few things that were relevant to the museum displays. Which is disappointing as the museum artifacts themselves are very local and specific to Ireland and are extremely interesting.

Wonderful museum. It is in the smaller side and a bit dark but it feels cozy somehow…read more The exhibitions tell a story of the history of Ireland. I wanted to visit to view the big bodies and I was not disappointed. They also had hordes of gold in display which were surrounded by beautiful jewelry. The museum is free.

I haven't actually been up in Millmount Tower for ages but only yesterday walked over to it while…read morerunning a few errands, as an excuse to prolong a nice walk. Great view from the Tower over the town especially as the day gets on.

Millmount Museum is worth visiting. A good selection of old firearms, etc on display. I really…read moreenjoyed my hour spent there.

The Dublinia is a historical re-creation museum focusing on Medieval and Viking history and is…read moreconnected to Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral. One of the most notable landmark buildings in the oldest part of the city, alongside and connected by a magnificent bridge to Christchurch Cathedral. There are 3 main exhibits in Dublinia which looks at the Viking and medieval history of the city of Dublin. The whole museum is very interactive and a lot of fun for kids The Viking section has recreations of a long ship and a home. There are Viking outfits to try on as well as lots of cool information that's presented in a fun way. The second exhibition is looks at medieval Dublin up to the 16th century with sets showing a rich merchant's house, a medieval street and a medieval faire. Fun fact: it was once a nightclub. Yes, Dublinia/The Synod Hall was once a nightclub, and one of the best in Dublin apparently

Learn about rich Irish history!…read more Admittedly, the Dublinia caught my eye because of the look of the building. The structure and architecture are pretty great. I could tell the building was old and wanted to know more! When you step foot inside, you learn so much about Irish history. I'm Irish and didn't know some of what was depicted. It starts with the history of the Vikings and goes from there. So interesting and definitely worth your time! If you like history, this is for you!

This is a really amazing experience if you value history or archeology at all. The visitor center…read moreis quite beautiful and very modern looking. You must book tickets in advance and they were sold out on the day we arrived. I booked about 4 weeks prior to our visit. Make sure you arrive at least 30 -60 minutes ahead of your booking time to enjoy the walk through the visitor center which is extremely well done and will provide a lot of background and important information about the tour locations. They also have a wonderful cafe with great food, including vegan and gluten free options with all allergens listed.

This is a well laid out Visitors Centre…read more Brú Na Bóinne Is a 5,000 year old burial site, that is older than the Pyramids in Giza, or Stonehedge by over a thousand years. Your visit will need to start at Brú Na Bóinne Visitor Centre which is nearly 10km away. Please don't do as we did and drive here. You will be turned away. The OPW operates a shuttle bus system and they limit the number of visitors each hour. They employed a "time sticker"s which you wear and the bus driver checks. The Parking Lot is huge and clear much thought went into this arrangement. The cafeteria had some well priced, tasty offerings, so we would recommend planning a stop there.

Dublin Tourist Guide: Trinity College - the Long Room…read more If you're traveling to Dublin you must make a few hours to walk Trinity College. I'll share more about the college itself on that yelp page but this review is strictly for the library at Trinity college with an emphasis on the Long Room (one of the most famous views on the campus). Built in the 1700s this library has been used in reference in so many movies and many people will recognize these photos from social media, as it's a highly photographed spot from the college. I was extremely lucky that despite coming in the summer we came on a weekday and it wasn't as packed as most people's own pictures seem to reflect. So my pro tip of course would be to come off season, but if you can't - even us coming in peak tourist season a weekday mid afternoon was a great time to come. The library is literally stunning. I'll honestly never forget it and for as simple as a library may seem, it was one of my favorite historical spots (indoors) that I had seen. The library is roped off on the sides so you don't have full access which makes sense as they don't want people touching the books. Being in the center though you still got great views and I was also lucky to come when they weren't doing maintenance on the library. Something to keep in mind as I've seen they sometimes remove the books for cleaning and maintenance, so something to look up before coming. 5/5 would recommend coming to the long room at the library, a great spot to check out.

Must-visit part of Trinity College in Dublin - we stopped by after The Book of Kells…read more The long room is a library with tens of thousands of books and busts of famous men and women (like Socrates and Shakespeare) lining both sides. It also houses the Brian Boru Harp, which is the oldest surviving Irish harp and a symbol of Ireland. Other notable artifacts include The Irish Proclamation of 1916, and various books and letters of scientific and cultural significance - from botanical drawings to world maps to metal coins. Wish I had taken more time to browse - will be back!

An amazing and quintessentially Irish prehistoric tomb. To gain access, you have to call to the…read morehouse of Mr. Fintan White (call 01 8354722 before 6pm) which is just a mile west of the Tomb -turn left at the Y-junction with the white and green house, go straight up the narrow track where the main road turns left. Whites' house is some distance up here - the 5th on the right.is the fifth house on the right. Don't worry, it's signposted! It's an amazing opportunity to get a private view of a megalithic passage tomb, smaller than Newgrange but just as eerie. The roof, which looks like a green mound from the outside, is artificial and was put in place to preserve the remains of the tomb. Inside, it takes the eyes a few minutes to adjust to the gloom,but once they do, the carvings and chambers are visible. Standing in a sacred space of your ancestors is a pretty cool thing. Apparently the entrance is aligned with the movement of the sun, as is Newgrange. Well worth a visit.

So the way that I travel, I like to rent a car and just drive around with my partner. The best way…read moreto experience a new country is just to live like everybody there. So as we were driving along, we found this beautiful park drove into and really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. There's a beautiful walkway that takes you down to this building. As we open the doors, there's a greeter and I asked her a little bit about what this whole experiences and she didn't really have much information to give me. So I said why not let's go ahead and see what we got ourselves into. There is a beautiful museum and there is a beautiful café with lots of different treats and sandwiches and entrées. There's also a gift shop that has really great gifts that you could give to family and friends a couple of the items we got were a wishing Stone and a worry stone. The experience did not stop there, you have to walk down this beautiful pathway where everything is green and luscious and you get to a bus stop. The bus comes and takes you down this roadway that leads you to what we found out was a tomb. It was a surprise to us that we found out that this tomb was actually one of the oldest tombs in the world, even older than the Egyptians. As we get to the property, we see a beautiful architectural, severe round building with one little small entrance. The entrance to the tomb is narrow but a large man can still fit through it to see the experience. As we come to find out, it was a tomb, possibly from a rich family and Ireland that controlled most of the land. The family had incest to keep the power within. All of these are possibilities they do not know because of how old this is. Once in the tomb, you get to see that there are three burial plots, and there's a light experience to show that once a year the sun hits a certain way and lightslights the tomb up for a period of time. After you're done with that, you get back on the bus and they take you back to the museum area where you can go ahead and have lunch or you can be done with experience altogether. This all lasted maybe an hour or two and really gave us something to do when we did not have anything planned. This whole experience cost us about $26 and was pretty nice and learned something new that I did not know before.

Impressive - Historical - Not to Be Missed…read more The Newgrange World Heritage Site is a prehistoric Neolithic passage tomb in County Meath, Ireland, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza. Built around 3200 BCE, this massive circular mound of stones is famous for its alignment with the winter solstice, when the rising sun illuminates the central chamber for about 17 minutes. It is the main site in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Brú na Bóinne and contains intricate carvings, which are believed to have astronomical or spiritual significance. Our Mary Gibbon's led tour also visited the Knowth Megalithic Passage Tomb via the same shuttle bus system from the Brú Na Bóinne Visitor Centre. The 5000 year old main mound, known as Knowth Site 1 is contemporary with the mounds at Newgrange and nearby Dowth. The mounds are classified as Passage Tombs by archaeologists. There are also 18 smaller satellite mounds around the main Tomb. The Visitor's Centre includes well curated exhibits, a decent gift shop, and a cafeteria. It's best to hydrate up as the shuttle bus portion takes time, with only a couple lone bathrooms and no concessions en route.