Brú na Bóinne

Let me tell you about how crazy I am when I'm determined to do something. I go absolutely freaking all-out, nearly get myself into disasters, but keep my fingers crossed and hope that everything will work out.

The latest thing that I got myself into that could have potentially turned out to be a disaster was my crazy idea to go to Brú na Bóinne in County Meath, about 2.5h from Dublin, alone and on the day of my return flight to Edinburgh.

Let me first tell you about how I got there.



Brú na Bóinne is a group of three Neolithic monuments constructed over 5000 years ago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of ancient burial tombs, shaped like mounds with several satellite mounds around the three big ones. Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth are the three big mounds, with Newgrange being the most well-known for its solar alignment during the winter solstice around December 21 every year.

Newgrange at Yule, or the Winter Solstice.

Get this - these monuments are 600 years older than the pyramids in Egypt, and 1000 years older than Stonehenge.

But what's the big deal about 5000-year-old tombs anyway? It's hard to say - maybe it's the realisation that the people who lived 5000 years ago were every bit as creative as we are today, or that standing in the walls that were constructed 5000 years ago you have stepped back in time for a little bit and are seeing the work of people who lived five milleniums ago, almost exactly as they saw them (I only say almost exactly because over the years after Newgrange was rediscovered the insides were vandalised).

From Dublin City Centre, there are three options you can take to get to the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, where you will buy your ticket and book your tour to the three monuments.

1. Tour group

This is the easy option - simply following a tour to go out to the monuments. Oftentimes, these groups will also include stops at other sites, such as the Hills of Tara and the Boyne Valley, so they're a great option if you want to do more than just Brú na Bóinne. The Hills of Tara and Boyne Valley are also the sites of important Irish historical monuments of an archeological nature, so if you're into mythology and/or ancient history this might be the choice for you.

Mary Gibbons Tours and Boyne Valley Tours both provide popular tours to these sites.

2. Shuttle bus

The company Over The Top provides a shuttle bus service for €17, €15 if you're a student, that takes you to and from the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, with two departures and two returns a day. Departing at 9AM and 11.30AM from the tourism office on Suffolk Street, it returns at 1.30PM and 4.30PM from the visitor centre so it's a convenient pick-up point with plenty of time for you to look around and explore each place properly.

There is one caveat, though - there must be a minimum number for the shuttle bus to operate, so in the low season (anything that isn't summer, September-May) it's essential to book the bus in advance. At least seven persons are required for the service to run, so if it's a number less than that this won't be an available option

I wanted to take this option, and I'd turned up for the 9AM bus - only to realise that they weren't operating that day because I was going to be the only person on it!

3. Public bus

This option is a risky one because of the tight schedule on which you have to operate as well as the transfers you have to keep in mind. The buses go from Dublin to Drogheda, which is the nearest town to Brú na Bóinne, and then you have to take a bus from Drogheda to the visitor centre.

100X will take you from Custom House Quay, near the Bus Eireann Busaras, to the bus station in Drogheda. It departs at 10AM from Custom House Quay, arriving at 11AM; it returns from Drogheda at 4PM and reaches Dublin at around 5PM.

163 in the direction toward Donore stops at the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre. It departs from Drogheda toward the visitor centre at 11.15AM; it returns from the visitor centre to Drogheda at 3.10PM. This gives you roughly four hours to complete your tour of the sites and get back in time for the return bus, which is actually less comfortable than it sounds. I'll explain why in a bit.

Here's a useful PDF file of the Bus Eireann bus timetables.




So you've got yourself to the visitor centre, and you've bought your tickets to visit the monuments. Newgrange is located about 3KM away from the visitor centre; Knowth, about 4KM. This means you'll have to take a shuttle bus from the visitor centre to the monuments, and the sticker you're given tells you what bus time you're on.

Each monument tour lasts one hour. I would have liked more time to look around the monuments on my own after the tour, but the return shuttle bus arrived pretty promptly, so we weren't given much time to look around. Of course, you could choose to skip the shuttle bus and walk back to the visitor centre from the monuments, but then by the time you got back you'd probably have missed the bus to the next monument, which for me was Knowth.



The entrance stone to Newgrange is probably one of the most striking things about Newgrange. All the stones are richly decorated with all sorts of symbols and beautiful carvings - triskeles on everything, chevron lines, concentric geometry, and lots more. It's stunning to think that these beauties have been so well preserved for 5000 years.



Although it looks massive from the outside, the interior is actually really small - it's narrow and cramped, and there's only one passage that leads to a cross-chamber, three recesses on the left, front and centre. It's beautiful, and although it has been vandalised over the years before the site became managed and lots of the original artefacts inside have been stolen, it's nonetheless one of the most awe-inspiring experiences I've had.

We aren't allowed to take pictures inside Newgrange, so if you want to see the inside you'd normally have to make a trip and go there yourself. And indeed you should; I highly recommend it. But because you read my blog and I love you guys, I've searched the internet for other people's photos of the inside. :)



Those photos really don't do it justice. There's nothing like being inside and experiencing it in person.

My next stop was Knowth, one of the other two, and lesser-known, monuments. Surprisingly, I actually liked Knowth a lot more than I did Newgrange - it felt more authentic, less reconstructed, and I really liked that there were so many little satellite mounds around the big one.



The smaller mounds were probably used to bury less important members of ancient Irish communities. My guide for Knowth was Mandy Boyle - she's fabulous, answering all sorts of questions even though I'm sure she's heard them a thousand times, being so dedicated to her work and enthusiastic about people who want to know more about Brú na Bóinne.

At Knowth you can't enter the original chamber built 5000 years ago because the passageways are too narrow for visitors, but there's a small little visitor's chamber built into the mound that visitors can enter anyway and that's pretty cool. The length of the passageways at Knowth are also about 15m longer than the one at Newgrange - and there're two chambers at Knowth, each opposite the other but without a through connection.

Knowth's solar alignment falls with the Autumn Equinox - so Newgrange isn't the only one with a solar alignment!



I'll admit, I felt like I didn't get as much time looking around as I would have liked - but then again, this was me taking my time to slowly examine and look at things, so. Also, a cool thing about Knowth is that you're allowed to walk on the roof of the mounds if you want to!

Here comes the crazy nearly-missed-my-bus bit of my day.

The return bus from Knowth was supposed to leave to the visitor centre at 2.45, but it wasn't until 2.56 that the bus finally left to go back. When I reached the visitor centre at 3.04PM, I was running like I'd never ran before to catch my 3.10PM return to Drogheda so that I could get back to Dublin.

I caught and got on the bus to Drogheda at 3.09PM. If I'd been there just one minute later, it would have left and I'd've been stuck there. Talk about a close shave.

Anyway, I got on my bus safe and sound, and made it back to Dublin comfortably with lots of time before my flight later that evening (which, by the way, was delayed because Ryanair really sucks) but really it's one of those kids-don't-try-this-at-home things.



Brú na Bóinne: Palace of the Boyne. Sounds mighty fancy, like kings may have once resided in here. Maybe if we listen hard enough, we'll be able to hear whatever it is that these old stone walls are trying to say to us. Within these chambers are contained magic.

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On November 9 I will be hitchhiking to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Edinburgh Student Charity Appeal and associated charities. If you haven't already, please help by donating via Virgin Money-giving here. Thank you everyone!