You are invited to join members of the Trinity Retirement Association on a coach trip to Newgrange, County Meath and to Ardgillan Castle and Gardens on Tuesday 1st September 2015.
NEWGRANGE
We will leave Nassau Street in Dublin at 9.45am by private coach and travel to the Newgrange Visitor Centre, a journey which should take just less than an hour. Newgrange is a Stone Age monument in the Boyne Valley which was constructed over 5000 years ago. It is part of a complex of monuments built along a bend of the River Boyne known collectively as Bru na Boinne.
You will have time to have tea/coffee (at your own expense) in the café at the Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre. The Visitor Centre also has an extensive exhibition including a full scale replica of the chamber at Newgrange as well as a model of the smaller tombs at Knowth.
Visitors to Newgrange are taken by shuttle bus to the Newgrange site and we have booked places on the 11.45am shuttle. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the site and we will then have a guided tour between 12noon and 1pm. We return by shuttle bus to the Visitor Centre arriving at about 1.15pm.
Lunch
We return to the coach and depart for Slane (about 15 minutes away) where we have booked a soup and sandwich lunch and a reserved seating area at the Conyngham Arms Hotel www.conynghamarms.ie. This is a restored 18th century coaching inn set in the heart of historic Slane.
Ardgillan Castle and Gardens
After lunch we return to the coach and depart for Ardgillan, a journey of about 45 minutes. At Ardgillan, you can choose to join a guided tour of the Castle OR a guided tour of the gardens, both of which will take about an hour.
Ardgillan Castle and Demesne www.ardgillancastle.ie is situated in North County Dublin on an elevated coastline between Balbriggan and Skerries, 20 miles north of Dublin City. The park consists of 194 acres of rolling open grassland, mixed woodland and gardens, overlooking the Irish Sea. Although referred to as a castle, the residence at Ardgillan is a large country-style house with castellated embellishments. The central section was built in 1738 by Robert Taylor, with the west and east wings added in the 1800s. Initially the site was heavily wooded, the name Ardgillan being derived from the Irish “Ard Choill” meaning High Wood. The castle was fully restored in the late 1980s/ early 1990s.
The original walled garden at Ardgillan was built in the late 1700s and was extended in 1861. The Yew Avenue is a surviving feature of the original landscaped park and was planted in the early 1800s. The Herbaceous Border runs along the Yew Avenue and displays abundant colour throughout the summer and autumn.
Depart for Dublin
Following the tours of Ardgillan, we return to the coach and depart for Dublin at 5.15pm. We should get back to Dublin at about 6.15pm, depending on traffic.
What the ticket includes
The cost of a ticket for TRA members is €30. A member may have one non-member accompany them on the tour, and in this case, the cost of the ticket for the non-member is €35 (as the Association is providing a small subsidy for members). Included in the ticket price are
- Transport by private coach
- Guided tour of Newgrange and entrance to exhibition in Visitor Centre
- Soup, sandwich and tea/coffee lunch at Conyngham Arms Hotel, Slane
- Guided tour of Ardgillan Castle OR guided tour of the gardens at Ardgillan
Booking a ticket
If you are interested in going on this trip, you can book and pay on the website below. Alternatively, you can email info@tcdretired.ie and request a booking form. Completed booking forms and payment should be sent to The Secretary, Trinity Retirement Association, c/o Pensions Office, House 4, Trinity College. Cheques/bank drafts/postal orders should be made payable to the Trinity Retirement Association.
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. As we need to confirm bookings with the coach company and others, we must receive your booking and payment no later than Monday 10th August 2015. Please note that if we do not have a minimum of 30 bookings, the tour will not be offered as this number is required to meet costs.