A short distance from the Hill of Tara are a number of large burial tombs in the same style. Although the Hill of Tara is considered to be the most significant spiritual centre, Newgrange is important as the meeting place of the kings.

We had prebooked a family size room just outside of the Newgrange site and made it there just in time to go to the local pub for dinner and Irish beer. Fresh fish and chips and Rockshore beer.

Well the luck of the Irish found us and took pity on our national lampoon vacation. Due to renovations on the Newgrange site, they cancelled bus tours and opened the tours, first come, first serve at 9am in the morning- free of charge. We saved €13 each which included Lowth – another significant burial tomb.

Lowth

Fertility rock for Druid ceremonies

The weather has been cool with a light mist- perfect for sightseeing. We finished both tours by noon and headed over to Navan to pick up a few things and sort out out Irish SIM card. No shortage of delicious pub food and thirst quenching refreshments. We headed over to Trim to see the famous castle, built over 60 years starting 1162, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland.

Newgrange

The picture above makes Newgrange unique. The opening above people’s heads captures the suns rays and projects it to the centre of the burial chamber for only 6 minutes, once a year on the winter equinox, December 21. There was a lottery which you could enter and if your name was drawn, you could see the light phenomena with a friend. Only 100 people world wide are able to witness this event.

We stayed in the Historic Brogans pub and B and B in Trim and had dinner—of course—in the pub, only Malbec this time. It was a big night for the pub- a long weekend with live entertainment. At 10pm – so we did hear the band when it woke us up in the room above. Pretty hard these days to stay up past 10pm!