ONLY the Polish-born architect Andrej Wejchert has managed to conceal the presence of a major tourism facility in the landscape. The Ailwee Caves visitor centre in the Burren is his great disappearing act, because of the way it literally fuses with the bare limestone pavement.
The task facing Anthony O'Neill in the Boyne Valley was much more daunting, given that his new visitor centre could not be completely concealed without losing the view of Newgrange, yet Clare Tuffy, the longest-serving guide on the site, swears it cannot be seen from the entrance to the legendary tumulus.
It cannot be seen from the Donore road either because it is built into a hillside beneath and its roof is covered with planting the poppies, flowers and weeds of a wild meadow. In this, it has some connection with Mr O'Neill's visitor centre at Glenveagh, Co Donegal, though the planting mix is quite different.
The main impact of the visitor centre's presence from the Donore road is the forged iron gates, incorporating a motif based on the famous spiral of Newgrange, and the parking area for some 200 cars and nine coaches. This is landscaped with silver birch, which will soften its hardness over time.
From the car park, a serpentine walkway covered in a continuous timber pergola (to be planted with honeysuckle) wends its way down to the visitor centre. "We wanted to provide some space for people to forget about their cars and wind down a bit before they arrive at the centre," the architect says.
The entrance is formed by an open rotunda, filled with large stones, fountains and waterfalls. A large timber door, decorated with motifs borrowed from Bru na Boinne, leads into the reception area where the counter - unexpectedly - is made up of large limestone boulders, polished at the top.
Like almost everything else in the centre, it is circular in shape. Behind it is a structural colonnade made from tall, rough-hewn lime-stone pillars, which contains one of the main interpretative displays - topographical recreations of Newgrange in its various stages. Also depicted is a typical dwelling of Ireland's Stone Age folk.
The replica of the passage tomb, by Jack Harrison and Associates, is somewhat disappointing, as the corridor is lined with "stones" only on one side (presumably to process visitors with greater ease), but the recreation of Newgrange's corbelled chamber is quite impressive - even if it does have an exit to one side.
Twin spiral staircases curl around a drum containing the lift to provide access to the ground floor, where there is a large tea room ("Don't call it a restaurant," Mr O'Neill says). Above it is a glazed viewing gallery with panoramic views over Bru na Boinne, including a glimpse of Newgrange through old trees in the foreground.
Boldly, the architect has used an eclectic palette to decorate the centre - yellow lampshades in the "tea room", blue and green balustrades, purple columns and other splashes of colour. The overall effect, reinforced by the glass panels on the spiral staircases, is peculiarly redolent of the 1960s.
An aggregate incorporating quartzite - the stone used in the facade of Newgrange - is used in the structure and, most visibly, in a staircase leading to the open terrace at first-floor level. Looking at the building from close up, it is hard to believe that it cannot be seen from afar, yet it manages to fit into the landscape quite comfortably.
One of the most striking features of the visitor centre is separate from it - the cable-stay pedestrian bridge which spans the derelict Boyne canal right in front of the building and the river itself. It was deliberately placed at a relatively high level because of the Boyne's notorious floods and its design is based on a bridge in Stuttgart.
Mr Eugene Kearney, secretary of the Boyne Valley Trust, which opposed construction of the visitor centre, described it in The Irish Times yesterday as "urban, modern and ugly". He was being less than fair. The fact that it contains 2,500 square metres of space, yet manages to be relatively unobtrusive, speaks for itself.
The Minister for Arts and Culture, Mr Higgins, described it yesterday as "an outstanding example of the best of modern Irish architecture". Its successful integration into a sensitive environment was "an architectural triumph which I have no doubt will come to be recognised as Mr O'Neill's masterpiece", he said.
People can judge for themselves which of them is right.
