Before we came on the trip, Chris and I discussed what we would regret not seeing while we were in Ireland and for me, that was Brú na Bóinne The thought that we could be walking where neolithic humans walked more than 5,000 years ago was amazing to me.

The Brú na Bóinne area contains the three passage tombs of Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth which were built circa 3200BC. These are ceremonial mounds that also housed the remains of Neolithic people and contained the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe.

Once we got to the visitors center, we were able to learn a lot about the mounds, the people who built them, the people who repurposed and outright stole sacred stones throughout the ages, and the archeologists that discovered and saved them.

One quick side note, as we were waiting for the bus to come to take us on the tour, we had a little visitor come stand directly next to me. This is the European Robin; isn’t he photogenic?

We started at Knowth and it is one main mound with 2 passage tombs surrounded by 17 smaller tombs. We weren’t able to go into the passages, but could climb to the top of the main mound and see the whole area. Apparently, at one point, people had built homes on top of the mound, thankfully those are all gone now.

Newgrange was next, and we were able to go into the passage tomb here. It was rather low and narrow, but I had no problems flying through it. Can’t say the same for Chris though. The passage was cross shaped with three chambers. Sadly, prior to the tombs being declared a world heritage site, there is a lot of graffiti from the 17-1800’s. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside the tomb.

Within the tomb, the tour guide turned off the lights and did a simulation of how the sun rising on the winter solstice would pass through the tunnel to the chamber at the top of the cross. Given that we could not see where the light was originating from, that was pretty remarkable.