The visit to the tombs includes time to wander around the exterior grounds as well as a visit inside.\u00a0 You enter through an extremely narrow passage to get to a small chamber where the construction and use of the tomb is described and the solstice is simulated.\u00a0 Unfortunately the solstice simulation involves complete darkness and Sugarplum freaked so they had to stop the presentation so hubby could take her out but Honeybun and I stayed to see it and then hubby went in with the next group while the girls and I explored outside.\u00a0 The museum, tour and simulation were all fascinating and I would love to go back again to see the other tomb as Knowth (which is only open part of the year).<\/p>\n In the same area is the less popular but still fantastic Battle of the Boyne located on the sight of the 1690 battle.\u00a0 The site includes a really nice visitors center\/museum with a movie about the battle, a nice tea room and a large network of walking paths.\u00a0 We had a really nice visit and the girls enjoyed it other than the movie!<\/p>\n Also close to the Battle of the Boyne site is Old Mellinfont Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland\u00a0is now mostly ruins but has a small and interesting exhibit on masonry in the middle ages and you can wander freely around the site.\u00a0 We found these type of places great for the girls as they could run, be a little loud and explore without bothering other (though we never let them climb out of respect for the living history!)<\/p>\n Each of the sites listed are within an hours drive of Dublin\u2019s city centre and most are accessible by public transport and all the sites (with the exception of Powerscourt Estate) are managed by Heritage Ireland and extremely affordable with family rates of less than \u20ac20 for 2 adults and usually up to 3 children!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While there is plenty to see in the city itself while visiting Dublin, there are also quite a few spots just outside the city that aren\u2019t to be missed!\u00a0 During our time living in Dublin, we didn\u2019t own a car but we did on occasion rent (or \u201chire\u201d as the Irish say) a car to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[39,52,53,54,49,63],"class_list":["post-3300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tiny-travellers","tag-baby","tag-dublin","tag-ireland","tag-toddler","tag-travel","tag-traveling-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3300"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"423622_2697035754646_1413933610_n\"](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/423622_2697035754646_1413933610_n.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s hard to pick my favorite near-Dublin place we saw, but it\u2019s definitely not hard to pick the most unique: Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne and Newgrange.\u00a0 North of the city, the ancient passage tombs that one can visit at Newgrange are unique to Ireland, ancient burial mounds deep underground with a celestial connection to the Winter Solstace.<\/p>\n<\/a>A visit starts with buying your tickets to visit the tombs, which are sold on a first come-first-served\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>basis and getting you assigned tour time.\u00a0 When it is your tour time, you board a shuttle bus for a short drive out to the tombs.\u00a0 If you have awhile before your tour you can wander through the Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne museum or have a cup of coffee\/tea and a snack at the caf\u00e9 (we did both!)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\nAnother site similar to Old Mellinfort Abbey but much more widely known and visited is Glendalough, located Southwest of the Dublin.\u00a0 Founded by St. Kevin in the 6th<\/sup> century, Glendalough is larger and much better preserved than Old Mellinfort Abbey and just as interesting.\u00a0 The visit is a bit tougher as you have to park near the visitors center and walk to the site (whereas at Old Mellinfort Abbey, you park right near the entrance to the sight) and the walk is pretty far for little ones and the site is tough with a buggy.\u00a0 But we still really enjoyed our visit and had many great conversations about the monks at the monastery which she imagined as Monk (our cat) at Montessori (a school)!<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\nA short distance from Glendalough (and easy to do both in 1 day!) is the very popular Powerscourt Estate.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The House (if you can call it that!) at Powerscourt includes a few great local shops with Irish goods, my favorite being Avoca, as well as a nice caf\u00e9 and now houses Tara\u2019s Palace which is a children\u2019s museum centered around a large dollhouse (we did not get to visit this exhibit as it was in the process of relocating from another site during our visit).\u00a0 The estate also has expansive, well-maintained gardens which are free to roam and explore.\u00a0 We could have spent hours wandering around the estate and exploring the gardens!<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n