New Grange

The piece de resistance today as went to New Grange - the most incredible monument and a world Heritage Site. It's actually just one of many monuments in the Brú na Bóinne area - sort of an Irish version of Salisbury Plain. New Grange is a passage tomb, over 5000 years old and it has been extensively restored, somewhat controversially. There are three similar tombs all close to each other and New Grange is the only one that's been fully excavated. It's aligned to the winter solstice and has a special light box which allows a beam of light to illuminate the interior passage at sunrise. The white quarts is authentic and an amazing sight. It also contains some extraordinary carvings, inside and outside  and is actually pretty gob-smacking. Older than the pyramids at Giza and older than Stonehenge.
It can get heaving and you have to go round in a group so we also went to Dowth which has never been excavated apart from a rather ferocious investigation in the 1840s which have left a huge crater in the centre of it - see extra for how New Grange looked until excavated and restored in the 1970s.
This is for Apothecary7 and Beachcomber who like this kind of thing :)
And look how the sun came out just at the right moment - the Equinox too.