Newgrange, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Center & Monasterboice guided day trip from Dublin

I assume you have checked out Mary Gibbons tours to see if they have any spaces available?

I'll add another vote for Mary Gibbons if you are lucky enough to get it.

None of the companies you mentioned -- Get Your Guide, Viator, Trip Advisor-- are actual tour operators. Rather, they are 3rd party brokers that contract with tour companies and usually charge you a bit more. Usually, you can find the name of the tour operator somewhere on the Viator etc page. You might do better going directly to tour operators. If you google Newgrange tours, you should see Mary Gibbons and other local tour companies in addition to the 3rd party vendors. Also, in case anything goes wrong with your tour reservation, it is usually much easier to deal with the operator rather than a third party.

When I was in Dublin pre-Covid, I was able to book the Mary Gibbons tour through a Dublin tourist information office and I know other people who booked it through their hotels. Nowadays, the tours book up further in advance so that might not work anymore. But if you have reservations at a hotel, you might ask for their recommendation and assistance.

There are a few tours through AirBnB Experiences. I didn't see where any specifically mention Monasterboice, but I didn't look closely, either.
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Dublin--Leinster--Ireland/experiences?place_id=ChIJL6wn6oAOZ0gRoHExl6nHAAo&search_type=unknown&refinement_paths%5B%5D=%2Fexperiences&date_picker_type=calendar&query=Dublin%2C%20Leinster%2C%20Ireland&checkin=2026-09-19&checkout=2026-09-22&source=structured_search_input_header
Newgrange has a guided tour, which you can book directly.
The website for the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre indicates there are guided tours available, but I couldn't see how to book them. You might contact them. They might also know of a private guide who works in that area.

Have run into the same issue and contacted Mary Gibbons. There are several days for which they have booked tours for Trinity College history student, whole class which is causing this shortage. I plan to keep an eye on the Newgrange site opening up their reservation. (30 days in advance I think) and hoping to snag a spot. I think you can take a train to Drogheda and then a taxi. It will only cover Newgrange area but that is the main attraction for us.

You can also take the train to Drogheda and a taxi to the Newgrange visitor center. All of the tour companies hand you over to the official guides at Newgrange who transport you by private bus to the sites, so other than transport it’s a lot of the exact same tour once you’re there. When we went in May 2025 Mary Gibbons was also full with Trinity College students (I suspect that’s a large percentage of her business these days) so we chose to go on our own and found it to be pretty straightforward. You absolutely must get tickets from the visitor center website in advance, however .

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/ireland/success-visiting-newgrange-by-train-and-taxi

Here’s my report re getting to Newgrange on our own

We were to late to book with Mary Gibbons, so we booked this tour with Hilltop: https://hilltoptreks.com/tours/newgrange-tours/
We have not done the tour as we, too, are going in late September, so I can’t leave a review. This may be the same tour as offered by everyone else, but if not, I hope it’s helpful.

Thank you so much to everyone who's made suggestions. Yes, Mary Gibbons' tours are full for our dates. I meant to say that these companies (Viator, Get Your Guide, etc,) must be tour aggregators (I couldn't come up with the term), since they all offer the exact same tour at the exact same time and meet-up location. One place (Hilltreks, I think) has one space left, but there are two of us.

Our last-ditch effort will have to be the tour company we're doing the 6-day Ireland tour with, Vagabond/Driftwood Tours out of Dublin. They seem to have availability for a date we could make it, but we'd have to pay up front (unlike these other tours), and there's nothing about getting a refund if we change our minds (which all those tour aggregators offer if we cancel more than 24 hours in advance). Plus, ever since we paid off our 6-day trip, Vagabond has been non-responsive to several questions we had about that trip, so we're kind of reluctant to give them our business for this day trip.

Does anyone have any experience with Vagabond/Driftwood tours? Our 6-day sounds like a good tour, and people wrote positive reviews of the company, but their lack of communication on a couple of concerns we had makes us wonder if we chose the right company and if we should trust them with the Newgrange, Battle of Boyne and Moasterboice day trip.

@Ruth - Good to know about your experience. I was thinking of booking a taxi, but looks like there were enough lined up at the station? Wondering if anyone has a good way to book one up for peace of mind.

For the OP, I just booked my slot online as Mary Gibbons and the other one (Hilltoptrek) were still full. The bookings open up at midnight (local Ireland time) 30 days in advance, I think. I was just checking everyday as there are some other tours elsewhere that open up 28 days in advance.