5 Best Sights in Slane, Dublin Environs

Under excavation since 1962, the prehistoric site of Knowth is comparable in size and shape to Newgrange, standing at 40 feet and having a diameter of approximately 214 feet. Some 150 giant stones, many of them beautifully decorated, surrounded the mound. More than 1,600 boulders, each weighing from one to several tons, were used in the construction. The earliest tombs and carved stones date from the Stone Age (3000 BC); and in the early Christian era (4th–8th centuries AD), it was the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. Much of the site is still under excavation, and you can often watch archaeologists at work. Tours of the site depart from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre.

The stately 18th-century Slane Castle overlooks a natural amphitheater, a bowl-shape hollow formed by surrounding hills. In 1981 the castle's owner, Anglo-Irish Lord Henry Mount Charles, staged the first of what have been some of Ireland's largest outdoor rock concerts; up to 100,000 fans have gathered to watch stars including U2, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. A tour of the Gothic-style castle includes the main hall, with its delicate plasterwork and beautiful stained glass, and the dazzling neo-Gothic ballroom completed in 1821 for the visit of King George IV. The stunning parklands were laid out by Capability Brown, a famous 18th-century landscape gardener. Slane Castle produces its own whiskey and has fun tasting tours, including a how-to-make-an-Irish-coffee tour.

The 16th-century Hermitage was constructed on the site where St. Erc, a local man converted to Christianity by St. Patrick himself, led a hermit's existence. All that remains of his original monastery is the faint trace of the circular ditch, but the ruins of the later church include a nave and a chancel with a tower in between, and a stroll through them can evoke a little of the atmosphere of medieval Ireland.

A two-hour tour of farmer Willie Redhouse's fully functioning farm includes feeding the ducks, bottle-feeding the lambs, a visit to aviaries stocked with exotic birds, and a straw maze and go-karts for the kids. A blacksmith gives demonstrations of his ancient art, and there's a nice tractor ride around the farm. Every Sunday at 3 pm the Sheep Derby takes place, with teddy bears tied astride the animals in the place of jockeys.

North of Slane is the 500-foot-high Slane Hill, where St. Patrick proclaimed the arrival of Christianity in 433 by lighting the Paschal fire. From the top you have sweeping views of the Boyne Valley. On a clear day, the panorama stretches from Trim to Drogheda, a vista extending 40 km (25 miles).