Our Rick Steves tour ends with dinner Sept 6. We want to leave Belfast early Sept 7 and try to see Bru na Boinne the same day—assuming we can get tickets to access the Newgrange chamber—and maybe the Knowth one.
1. Is there a way to purchase tickets to both chambers? This is not clear in the inline site.
2. Can we get a train from Belfast to Drogheda, and then a cab to Newgrange? If we do that, what can we do with our luggage?
3. The alternative is to take the train all the way to Dublin, leave our bags at the airport hotel, and then go back to Drogheda.
We fly out noon Sept 8.
Thanks for any advice. Sept 7 tickets go on sale tomorrow. Are very limited. Private tours are $600 per car plus entrance tickets.
We would go Aug 25 but it seems all tickets are sold out.
Posted by
Lincolnshire, UK
2382 posts
You want the Brú na Bóinne Tour + Newgrange Chamber tour. It looks as if the last tour is 14.30 and takes about 3 hours.
There doesn't seem to be any luggage storage at Drogheda (unless you can arrange for a hotel to look after bags for you.) There isn't any at Newgrange.
Belfast to Dublin takes just over 2 hours by train. Add on time to get to your airport Hotel and drop bags and then get back to Dublin Connolly station for the train to Drogheda. It's an hourly service and takes about an hour. Allow another 20 minutes for taxi to Newgrange ... That is beginning to sound like a rush and I'm not sure I'd want to do it.... You would need to be on the first train out of Belfast (I think this is about 6.50 am) and book on the last tour at Newgrange. A missed train between Dubblin and Drogheda could scupper your plans
Posted by
OP
Salida CO
43 posts
Yes, I’m afraid you are correct. So disappointed. All we need is luggage storage in Drogheda and we would be fine. I’ll try some hotels but it does not look good.
We just toured Peru. Same difficulty getting to see the Nazca lines (not included on our 3-week tour). Ended up with a private tour but even that probably won’t work with Newgrange.
Thanks for your details and links. I found pretty much the same.
Posted by
Ithaca, NY, USA
760 posts
Curious to know whether you were able to make this work or not? We had a similar idea….currently scheduled to travel from Belfast to Dublin on a Sunday and fly home early Monday morning. Would love to stop in Drogheda, taxi to the visitor center, take the tour, return to Drogheda and continue from there to our airport hotel….. but like you we haven’t been able to figure out what to do with our luggage. Thanks!
Posted by
OP
Salida CO
43 posts
Glad you asked! Yes, we did manage to store our luggage...thanks to a helpful lady at the Chamber of Commerce/Tourist Office in Drogheda! She contacted a nearby boutique hotel and they tucked our bags in a back corner for a few hours. We took a cab out and another back. Easy. Really worth visiting. Allow plenty of time. But if you get to Bru na Boinne earlier than your timed ticket, you will have to wait--don't expect to get on an earlier bus. There is a very nice cafe and little museum area before you take the bus to the prehistoric sites. At the sites, you have limited time...cannot linger and catch another bus later. It is sufficient time. You cannot just wander around on your own. Just wanted to alert you. (I guess there was an option to stay longer...and walk back to the Center...but it was 2-4 miles as I recall.)
If I had realized what an historic area the Boinne is, I might have scheduled an extra day and booked a more extensive tour. But it was very interesting. Very glad we squeezed that stop it!
The hotel that held our bags was The Marcy Hotel. Emma was most gracious. [email protected] We left a tip, of course.
Check train schedules carefully. Our Rick Steves guide helped us navigate that part from Belfast as one leg of the route was under construction and we had to take a bus and then the train, as I recall! At the very small train station, we called a cab to take us on into Drogheda. We went right to the Marcy, then stopped at the Chamber of Commerce/Tourist office to thank our helper there! Everything worked out very well.
I will add that, before we made the above arrangements, I had contacted the pastor of the local Presbyterian Church and he very graciously offered to hold the bags, too. The church was further out of town...and our visit was on a Saturday when the church would not normally be open, so I was glad we did not have to inconvenience him. But he was delightful!
Posted by
Lake District, England
8394 posts
You could always stay at that hotel overnight. Bus #101 runs to the airport from Drogheda bus and rail stations every hour from 0200, every 30 minutes from 0900, journey time 55 minutes.
This is a 24 hour service, every hour in the evening until 0100.
Posted by
Ithaca, NY, USA
760 posts
Thank you so much, Diane! So glad it all worked out for you, and I’ll start to investigate the possibilities. I won’t know until the beginning of May whether we will be able to obtain Bru na Boinne tickets but I’m going to try to put the pieces in place if we are able to get them!
Posted by
NC
51 posts
Don't know if these will help, but 2 luggage storage apps are stasher.com and usebounce.com
Posted by
London
43 posts
I once did a similar trip, stopping off at Drogheda to get a taxi to Bru na Boinne on our way down to Dublin. We just asked the station master at Drogheda station to store our bags and he kindly put them in a room for us and we collected them on our way back- in case anyone else is looking for a solution.