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6 hour Half-Day Award Winning Private Tour of the Boyne Valley
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From €560 per person
County Meath sits just north of Dublin and it holds some of the oldest monuments on the planet. Most people drive past it on the way somewhere else. On this six-hour private tour, you actually stop.
Your guide picks you up and brings you out through Meath’s quietly spectacular landscape, starting at Newgrange - a Neolithic passage tomb built around 3,200 BC, which makes it older than Stonehenge and older than the Egyptian pyramids. Entry to the Newgrange chamber is first come, first served, so you’ll pre-book your tickets in advance. Once your booking is confirmed the team sends you the details. Tickets start from €18 per person.
From there you head up to the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland. At its height it served as both a political and a religious centre, and early worshippers believed it was an entrance to the otherworld. Saint Patrick himself made his way to Tara on his mission to Ireland. Your guide threads the stories together on the road between stops, and by the time you’re standing on the hill looking out across the plains of Meath, a lot of those stories will have started to click into place.
If the day has room for more, you might get to see the Monasterboice ruins in County Louth - an early Christian monastic settlement north of Drogheda that’s been a national monument since the 1880s - or Mellifont Abbey, the first Cistercian abbey in Ireland, founded in the 12th century and the site of the historic Synod of Kells-Mellifont in 1152. If Newgrange tickets aren’t available on your date, Fourknocks is a strong alternative: a passage chamber tomb built around 5,000 years ago, about 10 miles southeast of Newgrange, with a short passage leading into a wide pear-shaped chamber and three smaller offset chambers. It doesn’t have the same name recognition, but it’s remarkable in its own right.
If you’d like to extend the day, your guide can also bring you to Slane Castle in the village of Slane - the family seat of the Conyngham family since the late 18th century. Extensions come at an extra cost. On the way home there’s a chance of a stop in Howth Village, a fishing village with Norse roots going back to 819 AD, if you’re ready for something to eat.
Tell your guide what interests you most before you set off. The route is flexible, and they’re happy to adjust on the day.
Book your Newgrange tickets as soon as you confirm the tour. They go quickly in summer and the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre has a set allocation each day. The team sends you the booking link when your tour is confirmed, but don’t leave it to the last minute - chambers sell out well ahead of the visit date, and Fourknocks, good as it is, doesn’t have the same interior experience.
The Hill of Tara is best on a clear day. On a bright morning you can see five counties from the top - Meath, Louth, Cavan, Westmeath, and Dublin - and the scale of the ancient earthworks makes a lot more sense from up there. Bring a light jacket regardless of the forecast; it’s exposed.
Howth is worth lingering in if you’re heading back that way. The harbour has a great Friday market, and the cliff walk around the head is one of Dublin’s finest short hikes - though that’s a separate trip in itself. For food right off the boat, the pier has several good fish and chip spots that have been feeding locals for decades.
Monasterboice has two of the finest high crosses in Ireland. Muiredach’s Cross dates to the early 10th century and the biblical carvings are astonishingly well preserved. Most tour groups skip it entirely, which means you often have the place almost to yourself - a rare thing in this part of Meath.
If you’re curious about Slane Castle and its more recent history, it’s also one of Ireland’s great outdoor music venues - U2, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and the Rolling Stones have all played on its grounds over the years. It’s an odd but entertaining footnote to a day spent in the deep past.