Guide by Category
Historic Sites41 places that trace 5,000 years of Irish history
This is El Velo de Irlanda's broadest category, and for good reason: it brings together 40 places that, between them, span nearly all of Ireland's documented history. It starts with Neolithic passage tombs over 5,000 years old and the fossilised farmland of Céide Fields, one of the best-preserved prehistoric agricultural landscapes in Europe. It continues through the early Christian monasteries — Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Monasterboice — that made Ireland a center of learning during the European early Middle Ages, and extremes like Skellig Michael, a monastery built on a rock jutting out of the open Atlantic.
Click a province ↑Later come the Norman castles turned seats of power, the battles that decided the island's political fate — like the Boyne — and, in the 20th century, places like Kilmainham Gaol, the Dublin prison where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed and which is today one of the most visited symbols of Irish independence. Several of these sites overlap with the Mythology or Stone Circles categories — Newgrange and Tara, for instance, are both archaeological monuments and legendary settings — because in Ireland, documented history and mythic memory rarely travel alone.
Each destination's full page is currently only available in Spanish — clicking a card takes you to the Spanish-language write-up. To browse in English instead, try the interactive map.
Explore the 40 Sites
Leinster
19 places · Meath, Carlow, Offaly, Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin, Louth, Kilkenny, Westmeath, Laois
Spanish onlyBattle of the Boyne (Oldbridge)
Meath · Site of the decisive Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
Spanish onlyBrownshill Dolmen
Carlow · Europe's largest capstone on a portal tomb, never excavated.
Spanish onlyClonmacnoise
Offaly · A major early monastic city on the River Shannon, founded by St. Ciarán in the 6th century.
Spanish onlyDowth
Meath · A lesser-visited passage tomb of the Brú na Bóinne complex, aligned with the winter solstice sunset.
Spanish onlyDún Ailinne (Knockaulin)
Kildare · One of Ireland's four great royal sites, ceremonial capital of the ancient province of Leinster.
Spanish onlyGlendalough
Wicklow · A monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin, set in a glacial valley of two lakes.
Spanish onlyHill of Slane
Meath · Where St. Patrick is said to have lit a defiant Easter fire within sight of Tara.
Spanish onlyHill of Tara
Meath · Seat of the High Kings and home of the Lia Fáil.
Spanish onlyKilmainham Gaol
Dublin · The Dublin prison where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed.
Spanish onlyKnowth
Meath · The largest passage tomb in the Brú na Bóinne complex, covered in the greatest collection of megalithic art in Europe.
Spanish onlyLoughcrew
Meath · A hilltop cemetery of Neolithic passage tombs known as 'the Hag's Mountain.'
Spanish onlyMonasterboice
Louth · A monastic site famed for its round tower and two of Ireland's finest high crosses.
Spanish onlyNewgrange
Meath · A 5,000-year-old passage tomb older than Stonehenge, famous for its winter solstice sunrise alignment.
Spanish onlyKells Priory
Kilkenny · Ireland's largest medieval monastic site, so fortified that locals call it 'the Seven Castles'.
Spanish onlyDuckett's Grove
Carlow · Gothic mansion ruin, gutted by fire in 1933.
Spanish onlyDolmen de Haroldstown
Carlow · Neolithic portal tomb with a rare double capstone, once lived in as a home.
Spanish onlyTorre Redonda de Kilree
Kilkenny · A 29-metre round tower beside a high cross said to mark a king's grave.
Spanish onlyUisneach
Westmeath · Ireland's mythical centre, with nearly twenty visible monuments.
Spanish onlyRock of Dunamase
Laois · A limestone-crag fortress that was part of Aoife's dowry when she married Strongbow in 1170 — guarded, local legend says, by a fire-breathing fairy hound.
Ulster
10 places · Armagh, Tyrone, Donegal, Antrim, Down
Spanish onlyArmagh (St. Patrick's Cathedral)
Armagh · Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, where St. Patrick built his first church in 445.
Spanish onlyBeaghmore Stone Circles
Tyrone · A remarkable Bronze Age complex of seven stone circles, stone rows, and cairns in the Sperrins.
Spanish onlyBeltany Stone Circle
Donegal · One of Ireland's largest stone circles, 64 stones crowning a hilltop in Donegal.
Spanish onlyCarrickfergus Castle
Antrim · One of Ireland's best-preserved medieval castles, built in 1177.
Spanish onlyDonegal Castle
Donegal · Gaelic-Norman stronghold of the O'Donnell clan, lords of Tyrconnell.
Spanish onlyNavan Fort (Emain Macha)
Armagh · The legendary royal seat of the Ulster Cycle, ancient capital of the Kings of Ulster.
Spanish onlyTara Fort (Down)
Down · Fairy fort on the Ards Peninsula.
Spanish onlyGrianán de Aileach
Donegal · A circular stone hillfort, once the symbolic seat of the Kings of Ailech.
Spanish onlySitio Monástico de Inishkeel
Donegal · A 6th-century monastery on an island reachable only at low tide.
Spanish onlyCairn de Dooey
Antrim · A Neolithic court tomb with a cremation passage unique in Ireland.
Connacht
7 places · Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Roscommon
Spanish onlyCéide Fields
Mayo · The oldest known field systems in the world, a Stone Age farming landscape preserved under bog.
Spanish onlyDún Aonghasa
Galway · A dramatic prehistoric stone fort perched on the cliffs of Inishmore, in the Aran Islands.
Spanish onlyKnocknarea
Sligo · A mountain crowned by an unexcavated cairn said to be the grave of the legendary Queen Maeve.
Spanish onlyTumba de Creevykeel
Sligo · One of Ireland's finest court tombs, right beside the Sligo road.
Spanish onlyCarrowkeel
Sligo · Fourteen passage tombs atop the Bricklieve Mountains.
Spanish onlyCarrowmore
Sligo · Ireland's largest megalithic cemetery, in the shadow of Knocknarea.
Spanish onlyRathcroghan and Oweynagat
Roscommon · Over 240 monuments: Europe's largest unexcavated royal site.
Munster
5 places · Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Kerry, Waterford
Spanish onlyArdgroom Stone Circle
Cork · A coastal stone circle on the Beara Peninsula with sweeping views over the Kenmare River.
Spanish onlyLough Gur
Limerick · A horseshoe-shaped lake ringed by Stone Age monuments, one of Ireland's richest archaeological landscapes.
Spanish onlyRock of Cashel
Tipperary · A dramatic cluster of medieval buildings on a limestone outcrop, seat of the Kings of Munster.
Spanish onlySkellig Michael
Kerry · A monastery perched on a jagged Atlantic crag, inhabited by monks for over 600 years.
Spanish onlyStrancally Castle
Waterford · A Gothic-revival mansion built in 1830 over a Geraldine Norman stronghold on the River Blackwater — and, Irish media reported in 2026, Mark Zuckerberg's new Irish home.
