Hill of Tara, Trim Castle & Loughcrew Celtic Day Tour from Dublin

The Hill of Tara, Seat of the High Kings

About 50 minutes north-west of Dublin, the Hill of Tara rises gently above the plains of County Meath. For thousands of years it was a sacred and royal place: the oldest monument on the hill, the Mound of the Hostages, is a passage tomb built around 3000 BC, and later the High Kings of Ireland were inaugurated here. Grassy earthworks mark the old royal enclosure and its ring forts, and on the central mound stands the Lia Fáil, the Stone of Destiny, said to roar when the rightful king touched it.

Your guide spends about an hour on the hill, explaining the monuments and the legends that made Tara the symbolic capital of ancient Ireland. On a clear day the views stretch across a large part of the island. The ground is open pasture with sheep, so it can be muddy after rain; the visit itself has no ticket and is included in this tour.

Trim Castle on the River Boyne

Trim Castle is the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. Work began around 1176 on a strong position above the River Boyne, and its massive keep, built in an unusual cross shape with twenty corners and three storeys, dominated the frontier of Norman rule for centuries. A curtain wall with towers and a gatehouse still encloses the grounds, and across the river stand the ruins of an old abbey tower known locally as the Yellow Steeple.

On this tour you spend about an hour at Trim with your guide, walking around the walls and along the riverbank to see the castle from its best angles. Entry to the castle itself is not included, so those who wish to go inside can buy a ticket on site if time and availability allow, while others relax in the small market town of Trim.

Loughcrew Cairns: Neolithic Passage Tombs

In the afternoon the coach heads to the Loughcrew hills near Oldcastle, where a cluster of passage tombs crowns three summits known in Irish as the hill of the witch. Built more than 5,000 years ago, earlier than the great pyramids of Egypt, they were made by farming communities who carved their stones with circles, flowers and sun symbols. Legend says a giant hag dropped the stones from her apron as she leapt from hill to hill.

The best known tomb, Cairn T, is aligned so that the rising sun lights its carved back stone at the spring and autumn equinoxes. Reaching it means a steep walk of around 15 to 20 minutes up a grassy path, rewarded with some of the widest views in the Irish midlands. Allow about an hour here, and wear shoes with good grip.

Fore Abbey and the Seven Wonders of Fore

The last visit is to the valley of Fore in County Westmeath, where Saint Fechin founded a monastery around the year 630. Its oldest building, Saint Fechin's Church, dates from around 900 and has a huge stone lintel over the door. In the 13th century the Benedictines built the priory whose fortified towers, cloister and church make Fore Abbey one of the most striking monastic ruins in Ireland.

Your guide tells the local legend of the Seven Wonders of Fore: the monastery built on a bog, the mill without a race, the water that flows uphill, the tree that will not burn, the water that will not boil, the hermit in a stone and the lintel raised by prayer. Before the abbey, a short stop in Fore village gives you time for a café lunch at your own expense.

The Royal County of Meath

This Celtic day trip is a journey through the ancestral lands of Ireland. County Meath, nicknamed the Royal County, holds a remarkable concentration of prehistoric and medieval sites, from Neolithic tombs to Norman castles and early Christian monasteries, all within easy reach of Dublin yet far from the crowds of the city. The drive passes farmland, hedgerows and small villages that show rural Ireland at its most peaceful.

Booking this Boyne Valley day tour from Dublin makes the day easy: the region is poorly served by public transport, and the coach links four sites in one loop that would be difficult to combine on your own. You arrive back at the Molly Malone statue in the evening, about ten hours after leaving, with time to rest before dinner.