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Day 4:

Malahide Castle - Malahide Marina
Newgrange

Visit the haunted Malahide Castle, set on 250 acres of park land, in the pretty seaside town of Malahide. It was both a fortress and a private home for nearly 800 years and is an interesting mix of architectural styles. The Talbot family lived here from 1185 to 1973, when the last Talbot died.

The house is furnished with beautiful period furniture together with an extensive collection of Irish portrait paintings, mainly from the National Gallery.

Explore Newgrange, one of the most remarkable prehistoric sites in Europe and the finest Stone Age passage tomb in Ireland. It dates from around 3200 BC, predating the great pyramids of Egypt. In 1993, Newgrange and its sister sites Knowth and Dowth were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of their outstanding cultural legacy.

On the Winter Solstice, the light of the rising sun enters the roofbox at Newgrange and penetrates the passage, shining onto the floor of the inner chamber. The sunbeam illuminates the chamber of Newgrange for just 17 minutes. Jon Patrick, in 1972, found that the Winter Solstice orientation of the site was an original feature, and that they were sophisticated constructions, intended to maximize the accuracy and length of the beam entering the chamber.


Night in Dublin.