Dublin to Newgrange

Where will your USA flight originate from? East Coast? West Coast?

Flight time?

Are you renting a car to drive yourselves? Asking because it’s never smart to try to drive when you are jet lagged AND you’d be driving on the opposite of the road which can be disconcerting for some.

Newgrange is a very popular tourist site. I’d not take the chance that I’d be able to secure tickets on the day of your arrival. Have you double checked opening and closing times?

If you must drive rent at Dublin Airport then head to Trim. Spend the night there and early the next morning make the short 30 mile drive to Newgrange.

Flying out of Chicago with a short stop in Dulles. 7 hrs from Dulles to Dublin.

We are limiting our first days drive to one hour as much as I’d love to have more time to rest before starting our touring, we have a limited amount of time to tour and our adrenaline will be flowing. We will drive to either Glendalough or Newgrange that first day.

I’m afraid if having to be to Newgrange first thing is the only way to tour, we may opt to not see it. It is a short tour comparatively to everything else and would require an overnight that takes us away from western Ireland and all that we would like to do there.

Oh and sorry! Yes. Renting. But I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a tour to Newgrange and coming back to Dublin to rent a car

Assuming your flight arrives at 10:00 AM as scheduled, you still are unlikely to arrive at Newgrange before 12:30 or 1:00. You need to clear immigration, shuttle out to the rental lot, collect your car, get oriented and get to Newgrange. With that in mind, I suspect that you would be too late to get in. Especially since you are traveling during the peak season. But I’m just guessing. No one can really say.

We arranged for a private tour of the Boyne Valley on our arrival day last year. Our driver/guide secured tickets to Newgrange then picked us up at the airport just after 10am (our flight arrived just after 9am). We visited Trim Castle, Beactive Abbey, Hill of Tara (had a nice lunch here too), Monasterboice (beautiful 10th century Celtic crosses) and of course Newgrange. He dropped us off at our Dublin hotel after but I’m sure you could arrange to end in Trim (then perhaps rent your car in Trim?)

End of July is the start of peak holiday season so yes you will have problems. You are very unlikely to get a ticket if you can't arrive until mid afternoon. A coach takes visitors to Newgrange from the Visitor Centre so you can't even walk and get a glimpse of the outside.

I would recommend staying at a hotel near the airport. See if you can leave your luggage at the hotel when you arrive, then do some low-key sightseeing in Dublin, have lunch, and return to your hotel for the evening.

The next a.m., pick up your rental car from the airport and make the short drive to Newgrange in plenty of time for opening. You will be ahead of the crowds and enjoy it. You can then head out to your next stop from there feeling rested and refreshed.

Thank you all for your help! We are still trying to determine if we should start at Newgrange or Glendalough. If we end up starting with Newgrange we will stay over in Dublin our first night.

Question, will we have issues touring Glendalough? Is it a first come first serve tour as well?

Glendalough is self guided and you can come and go as you please. The only thing you pay an entry fee for is the little information center which describes the history and has a few docents who can answer questions. Otherwise you walk around as you please. There are also some nice trails which can be walked. And if you’re lucky, there might be a dig occurring. There was one when I was there last September.

If Glengalough is the only place you are traveling in that direction, you might consider a day tour. from Dublin. There are several companies that stop at the several scenic spots (check RS books for recs), giving you time to wander, visit St. Kevin, and even stop for lunch. You wouldn't need to worry about driving and parking, but could just relax.

Thank you all for your help!

SBOH, do you have contact information on your day trip? That might be the way to go.

I'm just a tad hung up on waiting a day to get started. If we have to stay in Dublin in order to wake early the next day to get to Newgrange, to me that is a day I could have been doing something. Anything. Again, we just are not interested in Dublin.

If we drive south and do Glendalough, we will drive on to Kilkenny to spend the night. At the end of our trip we would drive from Galway to Trim/Dublin and spend two nights with the first morning touring Newgrange and possibly Trim castle with the second morning heading to the airport. I've read about Pebble Mill B&B in Malahide and think that might be a good base.

If we drive North and wait a day to see Newgrange, I would spend one night in Malahide on the front end and one night before we fly out.

Right now I'm thinking driving south and ending the trip wit Newgrange might be the way to go so we can base ourselves for two nights in Malahide.

Suggestions?

First question - why Malahide? What is attracting you to there?

In your initial post you say you want to limit your driving to no more than an hour on the first day.

BUT in your last post you are now talking about driving to Glendalough and then Kilkenny on the first day. That is one long day after a Transatlantic flight . Allowing for time to clear immigration and pick up a car, it could well be 11.30 before you are on your way and may be even later. Glendalough is going to be 90minute drive and I assume you will need something to eat somewhere? Glendalough itself deserves 2-3 hours as it is quite a big site to explore. You then have another 2hour drive to Kilkenny...

I can understand not wanting to waste valuable time waiting to get started on Day 1. Have you thought about heading to Trim that day. It is about an hours drive from the airport, and is an attractive town with a ruined castle.

Visit Newgrange first thing on Day 2 - its about 40-50 minutes drive, After Newgrange then head to Galway which will take about 3 hours to drive. If time allows do the short detour to Clonmacnoise, (just south of Athlone) another early Christian site

https://www.visitoffaly.ie/Places-to-Go/Clonmacnoise-Monastic-Site/

Yes to everything you just said! I have real FOMO and I am obsessed with this trip right now and my OCD personality is getting the best of me.

Chose Malahide due to its close proximity to Dublin airport and a nice B&B recommendation. Would absolutely welcome other recommendations for our stay in Dublin before our morning flight on our last day.

My original itinerary has us driving an hour to Glendalough and then touring for three hours before heading to Kilkenny. We hadn't given much thought to the two hours to Kilkenny. We will discuss in detail when we choose our itinerary.

We also haven't given much though on stopping for meals as there are towns along our route except maybe the Dublin to Glendalough. We would likely eat before leaving Dublin.

Clonmacnoise is definitely on our itinerary to break up the drive from Galway to Dublin or Dublin to Galway.

So right now we are trying to decide between going north to Newgrange then on to Galway, Dingle, Kenmare, Kilkenny OR doing the reverse - Kilkenny, Kenmare, Dingle, Galway, Newgrange. Either way, our last night has to be close to Dublin airport.