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Private Luxury Tour of Newgrange and The Hill of Tara
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From €850 per person
The Boyne Valley holds some of the oldest and most significant ancient sites in Ireland - older than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids. This private tour takes you there from Dublin in a luxury air-conditioned vehicle, with a knowledgeable guide who’ll put the whole landscape in context as you go.
Newgrange is the centrepiece: a UNESCO World Heritage passage tomb dating to around 3,200 BC. The Hill of Tara carries equal weight for different reasons - it was the seat of the High Kings of Ireland and one of the most symbolically important places in the country for thousands of years. Your guide will fill in the history, the mythology, and the stories that connect these places to the Ireland you see today.
The tour is flexible, typically lasting 6 hours, with optional stops depending on time and your interests. Additional hours can be arranged for a fee if you want to extend it.
Important: Newgrange tickets must be booked in advance and follow a first-come, first-served policy. Once you’ve booked this tour, you’ll receive instructions on how to get your Newgrange tickets.
Book Newgrange tickets the moment you book this tour. Tickets are released in advance on a first-come, first-served basis and sell out weeks ahead in summer. Your guide will send you the booking link after purchase - act on it the same day. If tickets are unavailable, the Four Knocks tomb (also on the itinerary as an optional) is a genuinely worthwhile alternative and gets far fewer visitors.
The Hill of Slane is the optional stop most worth taking. Slane is a village 13km from Newgrange, sitting at a crossroads of four matched Georgian houses that were built in the 1700s to impress and still do. The hill above the village - where legend says Saint Patrick lit the Paschal fire in 433 AD, in defiance of the High King who’d banned all fires until his own was lit from Tara - is a 1-hour return walk with Boyne Valley views and the ruins of a 15th-century friary. If you’re extending the tour or building in extra hours, this is the stop that earns it.
The Hill of Tara needs more than 60 minutes if the weather is clear. The view from the hilltop takes in several counties on a good day, and the earthworks and mounds on the summit make more sense when you can walk them slowly with your guide. If you want more time here, let the team know when you book so they can plan the day accordingly.
Afternoon light in the Boyne Valley is exceptional. The passage tombs were built to catch specific solar events, and the quality of light in the valley in late afternoon - especially in spring and autumn - makes the landscape feel genuinely atmospheric. If you have flexibility on start time, a slightly earlier departure from Dublin lets you arrive at Tara in the afternoon rather than midday.
If you’re adding the Monasterboice optional, Drogheda is fifteen minutes south and worth knowing about. The Boyne Valley loop is shorter from Drogheda than from anywhere else - Newgrange is fifteen minutes west, Monasterboice is six kilometres north, and the town itself has dinner worth sitting down for. Scholars Townhouse on King Street is two AA Rosettes and does a tasting menu; if you’re extending the day and want to eat before the drive back to Dublin, this is the plan.
Navan is the county town of Meath and the natural overnight base for the Boyne Valley. Navan sits fifteen minutes from the Hill of Tara and thirty minutes from Newgrange on the M3, at the fork where the Boyne and Blackwater rivers meet. If you’re building extra hours into the day or want a base rather than a rush back to Dublin, the Boyne walk downriver from Navan to Bective Abbey (8km return, flat, along the river path) is worth the evening. Zucchini’s Restaurant on the main street runs an early-bird menu from five and has been doing it well since 2005.