Train to Dublin and to see Newgrange

We left Galway at 6:30AM on the train to Dublin.  Very nice train ride, arrived in Dublin 9:00 and left on the Newgrange tour with Mary Gibbons (her tour is in the Lonely Planet guide although we found it online) for Newgrange.  Through more very rocky terrain with low stone fences but fewer than we had been seeing.  We drove through the Boyne River Valley, site of famous battles and lush landscape.  Newgrange is a passage tomb built around 3200 BC, older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids.  It is aligned so that the rising sun on the Winter Solstice shines through a tramsom window over the entrance and shines deep into the passage way and onto the far back wall.  Over the passage and chamber is a dirt and stone mound 250 feet across and 40 feet high, with grass growing on the top area. The entrance can be sealed by a stone door and after it's initial use, it was closed up and the entrance overgrown hiding it from intruders for thousands of years.  There is a huge threshold stone carved with spirals and triangles, quite an acomplishment for the supposed stone-age people who made it. When it was built, there were no metal tools, so all of the carvings and shaping of stones had to be done with stones, wood, antlers, etc. The entrance passage is about 60 feet long, narrow and low.  We had to carryy our backpacks at floor level so as not to damage the wall carvings, shoulder our way along, turning sideways sometimes. Once inside the chamber, there are three side alcoves with carvings, usually spirals.  The chamber is probably six feet by 8 feet.  They shut off the lights and illiminated the passage to show how the Winter Solstice sunlight would appear.  Pretty dramatic.  Of course, Dec 21 has to be a sunny day, but I think the light enters from Dec 19 to Dec 23, so more days possible of dawn light.  I am sure that eventually they won't let people enter to passage and chamber, but at this time, it is possible, and it is incredible.  I thought I had to pick between Galway and Dublin, so I picked Galway. It's quieter and cleaner than Dublin, and I wanted to see the Cliffs.  But I got to go to Dublin anyway and see Newgrange.  I think it is a more important site than the cliffs.  Stfffi said it was so close (only 1.5 hours away by train) and not too expensive, so we went.  Fabulous!!! In this area there are over 40 passage tombs, two close by, and as large.  Others scattered and smaller.