Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The peaceful, green Valley of the Boyne, just 30 miles north of Dublin, has an impressive
concentration of historical and spiritual sights: The enigmatic burial mounds at Brú na
Bóinne are older than the Egyptian pyramids. At the Hill of Tara (seat of the high kings
of Celtic Ireland), St. Patrick preached his most persuasive sermon. The valley also con-
tains the first monastery in Ireland built in the style used on the Continent, and sever-
al of the country's finest high crosses. You'll see Trim's 13th-century castle—Ireland's
biggest—built by Norman invaders, and you can wander the site of the historic Battle of
the Boyne (1690), in which the Protestants turned the tide against the Catholics and im-
posed British rule until the 20th century.
