We visited Brú na Bóinne in June 2022 but didn’t post a review as there are plenty already. However, I now note that no one has yet described the Mound at Dowth and that a couple of the references made about it in earlier reviews are not quite correct so, here goes -

a. Dowth is the 3rd large mound (of similar size to the others) within the Brú na Bóinne complex after the more famous Newgrange and Knowth. Unlike them it has never been “reconstructed” and doesn’t form a part of the tours on offer at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre. It can however be visited externally independently without paying or booking. I have provided an aerial photo taken from a Visitor Centre video because it gives a better idea than any of my own close ups of what the mound looks like as a whole. That might be regarded as somewhat “underwhelming”!! Nevertheless, as I try to identify below, it has its interests and merits - although no one could argue that you should visit it in preference to the other 2 mounds if you had never seen, or could get to, them. If you couldn’t get a tour ticket however, you might do so in order to get that “WHS tick” by entering the inscribed area somewhere!.

b. Assuming that you have had your “fill” of Knowth and Newgrange, a further reason to go to Dowth is as an “antidote” to the previous experience! A chance to see an unreconstructed site which is still much as people would once have seen the other mounds, and an escape after the rather claustrophobic, rushed and over-marshalled tours which, unfortunately, have to be joined in order to see the main tombs.

c. It is awkward to get to. Assuming you will come from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre (a ticket solely for its exhibition costs 5 euro and doesn’t need to be booked - it is included in the tours) then, although Dowth is not much above 1km across the river Boyne, it is not directly accessible (“Visitors wishing to see Dowth can access the exterior of the monument directly via the N51. There is no access via the Visitor Centre”) or visited by any of the tours. Instead it is a c11km circular drive, best going East passing the Battle of the Boyne (1723) Visitor Centre and crossing the river via the “Obelisk Bridge” past the ruins of the Battle Memorial from 1736 "blown up in 1923, allegedly by republicans using dynamite from an Irish Army camp"! 

d. The Mound is situated a 100m or so off the minor road you will have arrived on at 53.703823, -6.450383. There is limited roadside parking but you are likely to be alone, or one of very few people there, even if the visitor centre is “heaving”! As the photo indicates, the mound itself is somewhat misshapen. This is because of quarrying and over-zealous 19th C excavations! There are 2 tomb chambers (“South” and “North”) whose entrances are both blocked by locked gates and another entrance (also blocked) to an early Christian “souterrain” which links to the “North” prehistoric tomb. Visitors enter along the wall at the bottom right in the review photo.

e. Is there ever likely to be improved access to the Dowth site? The 2017 Brú na Bóinne Management Plan  contains objectives (4.4/4.5) to “Promote” the OUV of the entire site by - “Improv(ing) access by way of virtual tours of the monuments not open to the public, e.g. Knowth and Dowth” and “Work(ing) …..to improve arrangements for access to Dowth (South) passage tomb”. This latter has been available in the past as a part of the Solstice events (its passage is aligned in the same direction as Newgrange which I think explains why the trees on the right of the mound in the review photo have been cut low, so as not to block the sun's rays) which shows that, unlike the Knowth tomb, it is physically capable of “receiving” visitors in appropriately controlled circumstances. I have also read that, until 2003, one could ask at the visitor centre for the key to it. At the time of our visit, there was no evidence of any progress on the Dowth-related objectives. If you are frustrated by its interior inaccessibility, you might find it of interest to visit (we didn't) another burial mound with carvings at nearby "Fourknocks" (Not WHS) - it operates a "free entry via a collected key with deposit" scheme. One might have thought that at least something akin to the booking system operated for entry to Maes Howe on the Orkneys could be arranged for Dowth? Perhaps there are "Health and Safety" concerns about the stability of the tomb? In any case - surely they could at least have tidied up the site and improved the signage? In 2022 there were just a couple of very faded notice boards at the entrance and no other information. Regarding Knowth's objectives - I should report that, in March 2022 a new "Visitor Hub"  opened there "offering a large digital exhibition exploring the rock art of Knowth and accompanied by engaging interactives and audio visuals" (a nice addition indeed).

f. The area of the Mound was acquired by the Irish State in 1997, so is not “privately owned”. Interestingly, just down the road at Dowth Hall (coincidentally also acquired by the state as recently as Aug 2023!) , is another (recently found) passage tomb known as “Dowth Hall Passage Tomb”! We didn’t visit, but it emphasises the fact that Bru na Boinne isn’t just “2 famous mounds plus a 3rd which most people don’t bother to see….” but an entire prehistoric “Cultural Landscape” consisting of many different remains – more tombs, henges, a “Cursus” etc, albeit that it isn’t recognized by UNESCO as such, presumably because its inscription pre-dated acceptance of the concept for WHS purposes.

g. After you have looked into Dowth’s gated tomb entrances and climbed to the top there is still value to be gained by wandering around the bottom. The few partly uncovered stones you will see at the base are those very same “Kerb stones” which you will have seen at Knowth beautifully re-arranged under an incongruous concrete “sill” to protect the carvings - a “feature” which has also been criticized - “a cantilever shelf was installed above the kerbstones around the full circumference of the mound. The aim of this intervention was to showcase the megalithic art whilst reducing the potential for weathering. Therefore, the mound had adopted an unfortunate mushroom-like appearance”. Those stones are of course the glory of Knowth (“Knowth has more than a quarter of the known megalithic art from all other areas of Europe, including Ireland.”). and are why many (including myself) find it more interesting than Newgrange. Apparently, carvings are visible on some of the Dowth kerb stones too. One, called “The Stone of the Seven Suns”, is the most famous but, unfortunately we were not aware of this and missed it! It is shown in this linked article  (Follow named link) which should provide as much information on Dowth Tumulus as you are likely to want!! 

h. A particular “interest” in visiting Dowth is to get an idea of what Newgrange and Knowth would once have looked like before all those “reconstructions” took place! See these pictures of Newgrange in the 18th C . Not so different in 1790 from the review photo of Dowth now? Compare them with the contemporary reality, about which has been said that it “inflict(ed) a 1960s standard of office-block design upon a structure that had stood for five thousand years”, that it had “an unfortunate municipal look to it” and was “a fake facade of white quartz that looks like a 1960s bus station”! Finally, that “20th century Irish nationalism has seen Newgrange stripped of its patina of age and irreversibly altered in order to accommodate visitor access.” (R. English, “Irish Freedom: the History of Nationalism in Ireland”)

i. So, in summary - go to

- Knowth to see the amazing externally “presented” Megalithic Art. 
- Newgrange for its tomb interior, “light box” experience and highly controversial reconstruction
- Dowth for a peaceful visit to a mound free of “conjectural reconstructions”.

j. Finally (!) - here are some links to academic articles I came across whilst researching aspects of Brú na Bóinne. You might be interested in their "facts" and "opinions"!

"Brú na Bóinne - A Sustainability Study" (2007) Describes the lead up to (and conflicts regarding) the choice of location for the Visitor Centre and the "controlled visit" regime which was established. 

"Disjunctives in Nationalist Rhetoric at Ireland's Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre" (2006). Considers the way in which Bru na Boinne (specifically "Newgrange") has been interpreted and marketed to reflect a subjective "self view" of Ireland - in particular the totally ahistorical "Celticisation" of a Neolithic landscape. An approach which has also possibly been involved in the rebranding of the site from the original prosaic (albeit "factual") “Archaeological ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne” at inscription in 1993 to the more magical and certainly more marketable - “Brú na Bóinne” - the Palace of the water goddess Boann (see "The Mythology of Newgrange") 

"Constructing Irishness: Nationalism, Archaeology and the Historic Built Environment in an Independent State" (2014) covers a similar domain to that of the previous paper but is more wide ranging in the sites and periods it covers. Contains interesting facts about the excavations at Brú na Bóinne - and also about Céide Fields, recently "dropped" from Ireland's T List.