Gracehill had been on my list ever since it first showed up on the Tentative list, by virtue of it joining The Giant's Causeway and Bru Na Boinne as the only three sites that a Northern Irish person can make an affordable daytrip to. That being my sole drive to go here should give you some idea of where my expectations were! On the customary pre-visit research and first steps into the site, it felt like nothing more than a particularly pleasant village the likes of which you can find anywhere here.

That's all a roundabout way to say that this site demands a tour. The village's residents have put together such a thing, normally by request but with six public tours in the Summer months. By virtue of social anxiety I went with the latter option and ended up exploring the place with a half-dozen other people, plus my partner. The tours are provided by locals - certified locals, but locals nonetheless - and the casual nature it showed whenever she had a friendly conversation with someone strimming a hedge mid-tour! The main benefit of this was that the guides were also involved with the nomination process and give a bit of behind the scenes that a regular tour guide wouldn't give.

My opinion of the site is probably a lot more generous than it would be otherwise because of the tour. The informational signage is restricted to one room with a lot of paragraphs which are always (at least for me) very easy to accidentally start skimming and stop absorbing information. I wouldn't have noticed the signs of building techniques uncharacteristic of other Irish buildings nor have fully appreciated the Christian values that went into the layout. It's a pretty place still in the process of rounding out the visiting experience, so if you're going to go, make sure you take advantage of what they're offering and go on the tour.