Newgrange is older than the pyramids and Stonehenge

Older than the pyramids and a thousand years more senior than Stonehenge, the prehistoric passage tomb of Newgrange is the king of Europe's Stone Age attractions.

While it's not yet a name that rolls off tourists' tongues, its popularity is such that visitors still need to arrive first thing in the morning if they want to score a place on a compulsory tour. Shuttle buses for the tours leave from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre near the village of Donore - an area renown for its Neolithic tombs.

The Newgrange necropolis sits inconspicuously beneath a grass-covered mound and its entrance is guarded by a giant boulder carved with spirals and geometrical shapes. A 19-metre-long passage leads to the burial chamber where excavations in the 1960s uncovered the cremated remains and burial goodies of five wealthy people.

The complex also appears to have functioned as a calender: when the sun shines at 8.20am on the winter solstice (December 19-23), light shoots through a hole in the roof and illuminates the tomb. While tickets for the winter solstice are decided by lottery years in advance, guides simulate it on every tour by beaming a torch through the hole.