An Orange Order group from Northern Ireland, mostly comprising children, visited the Battle of the Boyne site in Co Louth on Saturday.
Thousands of visitors from north and south are expected during the year at the 500-acre site which has replica muskets and canons at the State-run visitors' centre.
Saturday's group came from counties Tyrone, Fermanagh and Armagh.
Unlike last year's visit by the Independent Orange Order to commemorate the anniversary of the 1690 battle, this was a low-key affair with no politicians present.
"Our plan is to make this the foremost military history site in the country," said Ms Aisling McMahon of the centre.
Last year around 7,500 people visited the site and it is now open to the public every day until September.
Many of the 200 young people, aged 6 to 16 years, who visited over the weekend, were accompanied by family members, none of whom had visited the site before.
"This is something I have looked forward to for a very long time," said grandmother Mrs Audrey McAllister.
The young visitors wore their sashes and had a small parade across the Boyne.
On the narrow Obelisk Bridge over the Boyne they laid a wreath and held a small service for those who died.