AT A GLANCE

Why go?

In a great bend of the River Boyne in County Meath, the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre is the gateway to Ireland's richest archaeological landscape and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth were raised around 3200 BC—older than the Great Pyramids by some 400 years and older than Stonehenge by a thousand—and they hold the largest concentration of megalithic art in Western Europe.↗↗

You cannot simply wander up to the mounds: the Visitor Centre at Donore is the starting point for every visit, where an interactive exhibition introduces the Neolithic world before a shuttle bus carries you to the monuments on a guided tour. It is a place that rewards planning—tickets are timed and limited—but the payoff is standing before a 5,000-year-old tomb that still aligns with the rising sun.↗↗↗