Ballitore Quaker Museum is housed in the restored Meeting House of the Society of Friends in Ballitore, Co. Kildare. Ballitore is a charming village founded by the Quakers in the 1700’s. The village still retains a spirit of simplicity and modesty consistent with Quaker values. Due to the writings of Mary Leadbeater and her correspondence with such people as Mary Edgeworth and Edmund Burke, Ballitore is widely known. The Quakers from Yorkshire, who founded Ballitore, transformed the valley into rich fertile farmlands, and developed the town as a Quaker Settlement. In fact, Ballitore is the only planned and permanent Quaker Settlement in Ireland.

Ballitore is home to several historical buildings. In 1975 the Meeting House of the Society of Friends which had fallen into ruin was restored by Kildare County Council and it has served as the library for the Ballitore area since then. The Museum, which is incorporated into the library, contains a selection of artefacts and memorabilia of a mainly local nature. Items of Quaker interest include a wedding dress and bonnet worn by Marian Richardson at Ballitore in 1853. In the entrance hall are the door and lintel stone from the original Shackleton home at Harden in Yorkshire which was built in 1660. Also in the entrance hall is a ledger dated 1807-1810 for the Shackleton mills at Lucan. Amongst the Ballitore manuscripts on display are Shackleton’s letters and notebooks, which contain water colours by Mary Shackleton and the Ballitore Magazine.

Opening Hours:
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 1pm & 2pm – 5pm
Thursday: 12.30pm – 4pm & 4.45pm – 8pm.

Contact & Pricing:
kildareheritage.com/ballitore
Tel: 059 862 3344
Mary Leadbetter House, Ballitore, Co. Kildare
Free admission

The County Museum Dundalk is one of Ireland’s finest Local Authority Museums. It is located in a restored 18th Century distillery. Exhibits include the Mesolithic era onwards to the Middle Ages, Medieval times and the local industry all across three floors.

The Museum collection comprises over 70,000 objects ranging from the proverbial (Viking) needle to an anchor. Among the highlights are a magnificent three-wheeled, Heinkel motor car made in Dundalk in the late 1950s; the first Olympic Medal won by an Irishwoman (a Bronze won by Ardee’s Beatrice Hill-Lowe in archery in the 1908 Games in London); Oliver Cromwell’s shaving mirror; a leather jacket or jerkin worn by King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne; items collected by Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, discoverer of the fate of Franklin and one of Ireland’s greatest explorers; and a multi-award winning exhibition marking the industrial and engineering history of county Louth.

Opening Hours:
Tues-Sat: 10am–5pm
Closed Sun, Mon & Bank Holidays.

Contact & Pricing:
lamn.ie/visit-us/county-museum-dundalk
info@dundalkmuseum.ie
Tel: 042 939 2999
Jocelyn Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth
Free admission

Newgrange Neolithic Monument was built around 3200 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. The Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre interprets the Neolithic monuments of Newgrange, Knowth & Dowth. There is a full scale replica of the chamber at Newgrange, and a model of one of the smaller tombs at Knowth.

The Newgrange site consists of a large circular mound with a stone passageway and interior chambers. The mound has a retaining wall at the front and is ringed by engraved kerbstones. There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it is thought to have had religious significance – it is aligned with the rising sun and its light floods the chamber on the winter solstice. It is the most famous monument within the Brú na Bóinne complex, alongside the similar passage tomb mounds of Knowth and Dowth, and as such is a part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage, illuminating the inner chamber and revealing the carvings inside, notably the triple spiral on the front wall of the chamber. This illumination lasts for about 17 minutes. Professor M. J. O’Kelly was the first person in modern times to observe this event on 21 December 1967. The sunlight enters the passage through a specially contrived opening, known as a roofbox, directly above the main entrance. Although solar alignments are not uncommon among passage graves, Newgrange is one of few to contain the additional roofbox feature.

Today the first light enters about four minutes after sunrise, but calculations show that 5,000 years ago first light would have entered exactly at sunrise. The solar alignment at Newgrange is very precise compared to similar phenomena at other passage graves. Current-day visitors to Newgrange are treated to an impressive re-enactment of this event through the use of electric lights situated within the tomb.

Many thanks to Wikipedia for the above information – www.en.wikipedia.org

Opening Hours:
Visitor Centre open 7 days a week: 9.30am – 4.15pm
Exact opening times vary monthly, and site may be closed due to extreme weather conditions. Closed 24 – 27 December.
Check the website for current opening hours.

This is a busy site, with queues likely during summer months.
Access is not guaranteed without pre-booked tickets, online booking recommended.

There are 4 tour options:

• Visitor Centre only – Includes the exhibition at the visitor centre.
• Visitor Centre plus Newgrange visit –  Includes the exhibition at the visitor centre and access to the chamber at Newgrange. Approximate duration: 2 hours.
• Visitor Centre plus Knowth visit – Includes exhibitions at Knowth and the visitor centre. No access to the chambers at Knowth. Approximate duration: 2 hours.
• Visitor Centre plus Knowth visit plus Newgrange visit – Includes exhibitions at Knowth and the visitor centre and a guided tour of the chamber at Newgrange. Does not include access to the chambers at Knowth. Approximate duration: 2 hours 45 minutes

Admissions via the Visitor Centre, visitors are brought to the monuments by shuttle bus.

Contact & Pricing:
heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/bru-na-boinne-visitor-centre-newgrange-and-knowth
brunaboinne@opw.ie
Tel: 041 988 0300
Donore, Co. Meath
Adults €5-18; concessions