Hotels near The Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara stands above the Boyne valley at Dunsany in County Meath, Eircode C15 P44W, and the grounds are open all year for nothing. The Mound of the Hostages, the passage tomb near the summit, is around 5,000 years old. Ráith na Ríg, the oval enclosure that rings the top of the hill, was built about 100 BC. The Lia Fáil, the standing stone at the centre, is the one every schoolchild in Ireland is told roared when the rightful king touched it. From the ridge on a clear day you can pick out low hills across Meath and Westmeath.

The visitor centre is the catch. It runs from 1 May to 30 September only, 10:00 to 17:00, with guided tours during those months at 5 euro for adults, 4 euro for over-65s, 3 euro for students and children and 13 euro for a family. Arrive in late October and all of it is shut: no guide, no audio-visual, no toilets, no interpretation. You walk up through the churchyard gate onto an unlit, unfenced and thoroughly muddy hilltop and work it out yourself.

That is the argument for coming at Halloween rather than in July. Tara is one of the sites the Púca flame is said to link, and standing on an empty ridge in wind and low light gets you nearer to what a Samhain assembly felt like than any staffed exhibition would. Bring boots. The grass is short, the ground underneath it is not, and there is no shelter anywhere on the hill.

Pro Tip: Aim to be on the hill between 12:00 and 14:00, when the low autumn sun sits behind you and the earthworks actually read as earthworks. Without a car, Bus Éireann route 109 between Dublin and Navan stops on the R147 about a ten-minute walk below the site, and that road has no lighting after dusk.