A private luxury day tour with Newgrange Day Tours, covering five remarkable sites in Ireland’s Ancient East: the passage tombs at Newgrange and Knowth, the Hill of Slane, Monasterboice, and Trim Castle.
You’ll travel in a luxury air-conditioned car while your guide shares the history, mythology, and local legends that bring each place alive. Newgrange and Knowth are UNESCO World Heritage Sites over 5,000 years old - older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids - and the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre helps put everything in context with interactive exhibits and detailed models of the Neolithic period.
The Hill of Slane is where St. Patrick lit the Paschal Fire in 433 AD. Monasterboice holds Muiredach’s Cross, one of the finest examples of Celtic stone carving in Ireland. And Trim Castle - the largest Anglo-Norman fortress in Ireland, built in the late 12th century - closes out the day before your guide returns you to your hotel.
What’s Included
Private transportation in a luxury vehicle
Air-conditioned vehicle
In-person guide in English
What’s Not Included
Lunch
Admission tickets to Newgrange
Itinerary
Newgrange, Brú na Bóinne (180 min, including travel from pick-up) - One of the most important Neolithic sites in the world, built over 5,000 years ago. You’ll walk the passageway into the inner burial chamber and see the largest collection of megalithic art in Europe. The visitor centre has interactive exhibits, detailed models, and information about the Neolithic period. If you’d like to skip the ticket queues, a concierge service is available to pre-purchase your Newgrange admission tickets (€18 per person, charged separately) - just contact the operator after booking.
Knowth (60 min) - Also within the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO complex, Knowth features a large central mound surrounded by 18 smaller satellite mounds. The main mound contains two passage tombs adorned with intricate megalithic art - spirals, circles, and other carvings that make this one of the key sites for studying ancient European art and culture.
Hill of Slane, Co. Meath (60 min) - According to tradition, St. Patrick lit the Paschal Fire here in 433 AD, in direct defiance of the pagan king at Tara. The ruins of a Franciscan monastery and a 16th-century church stand here, and the panoramic views across the Boyne Valley are well worth the climb.
Monasterboice, Co. Louth (60 min) - An early Christian monastic site founded in the late 5th century by St. Buithe, a disciple of St. Patrick. Monasterboice is famed for its high crosses - Muiredach’s High Cross is considered one of the finest examples of Celtic stone carving in Ireland. The round tower on site once served as a refuge during Viking raids.
Trim Castle, Co. Meath (120 min, including return travel to hotel) - The largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, built in the late 12th century by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter. The three-storey keep with its distinctive cruciform shape dominates the landscape. It also featured in the film Braveheart. Guided tours are available on site.
Good to Know
Service animals allowed
Public transport options are available nearby
Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Suitable for all fitness levels
This is a private tour, conducted in English
Local Tips
Pre-purchase the Newgrange tickets before you travel. The operator offers a concierge service at €18 per person - use it. The alternative is joining the general queue on the day, which can mean missing the chamber entirely if numbers fill up.
The Hill of Slane is worth the walk to the top. The ruins of the Franciscan monastery are at the summit, and the views from there take in the whole Boyne Valley. The legend - Patrick lighting the Paschal fire in defiance of the High King - is old, possibly wrong in the details, but the place itself rewards the climb regardless. Allow the full 60 minutes. Slane village sits at the foot of the hill, with the Conyngham Arms coaching inn and the Slane Whiskey Distillery in the old castle stables if you want a stop before or after.
Monasterboice is free and open. The high crosses, including Muiredach’s Cross, are outside in the monastic enclosure. You don’t need a guided tour to appreciate them - but your guide will fill in the iconography carved across all four faces. The round tower beside them is one of the most intact in Ireland.
Trim town closes in around the castle. The keep is the largest Norman castle in Ireland - a three-storey cruciform structure that took thirty years to build and still looks like it means it. Guided castle tours run on site. If you have any free time, the walk upstream to the Yellow Steeple (the fragment of a 14th-century abbey across the Boyne) gives you the classic view back to the keep. Brogans Bar on the main street is the obvious stop before the drive home.
Trim Castle closes at 4pm in low season - if you’re doing this tour in winter or spring, check opening hours with the operator so the final stop doesn’t fall outside visiting hours.
Navan is the natural overnight base if you’re not day-tripping. The county town of Meath sits where the Boyne and Blackwater rivers meet, thirty minutes from Trim and twenty minutes from Slane. It’s a working market town with proper restaurants - Zucchini’s on the main street has been doing early-bird menus worth turning up for since 2005 - and it puts you closer to all five tour stops than staying in Dublin does.
Drogheda anchors the northern end of the tour’s geography. Monasterboice is about ten kilometres from the town, and the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge is six kilometres upriver on the Boyne Ramparts walk. If you have a night before or after this tour, the Scholars Townhouse on King Street is the best dinner in the valley - and St Peter’s Church on West Street has Oliver Plunkett’s head in a glass case, which is exactly as arresting as it sounds.
Nearby on IrelandMe
Slane - the Hill of Slane is a stop on this tour, and the village below has a working whiskey distillery in the castle’s old stable yards, plus Slane Castle’s forty-year legacy as one of Ireland’s great open-air concert venues.
Trim - the final stop on this tour; the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland sits on the Boyne with the Yellow Steeple visible across the water, and the town wraps itself around 850 years of medieval memory.
Navan - the Meath county town where the Boyne and Blackwater converge; thirty minutes from Trim and twenty from Slane, it’s the practical overnight base for the valley with Zucchini’s restaurant for a Friday dinner that earns the detour
Drogheda - Monasterboice is ten kilometres from this Boyne estuary town; the Ramparts walk runs upriver to the Battle of the Boyne site, and the shrine of Oliver Plunkett at St Peter’s Church on West Street is free and not something you forget
