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County Meath shares the Boyne valley with County Louth (pronounced "Leish") alongside it, and the region is famous for the Battle of the
Boyne in 1690. It features undulating vistas with handsome old houses on great country estates, with horse breeding and training now an important
industry. Rich also in Neolithic ruins and legends with the passage graves of Newgrange and Tara, this area is now a major commuting area for
Dubliners.
Click on the headings to find out more:
The ancient and historic town of Drogheda (pronounced "draw-da") is situated on the River Boyne, which at this point separates the counties of
Meath and Louth In 1649, Drogheda was the scene of Oliver Cromwell's most notorious massacre. About
3000 inhabitants, including children, were horrifically butchered by Cromwell's victorious New Model Army, with the few survivors shipped
in chains to *Montserrat and Barbados in the Caribbean as plantation slaves. (*An interesting follow up on this can be found in Irish author
Pete McCarthy's great new book "The Road to McCarthy" (Hodder & Stoughton 2002) where he investigates the Irish roots of the islands to find
that the 1678 census of Montserrat revealed an English population of 761, Scots 52, and Irish 1,869!)
St Peter's Church dominates Drogheda. Exhibited inside this gothic edifice is the head of St Oliver Plunkett, executed by the English in 1681
on suspicion of involvement in a Popish plot. (The accusation was revealed as a fabrication the next day.) Plunkett was hanged, drawn and
quartered at Tyburn in London (the gallows stood where Marble Arch now rests) and his remains were publicly burned by the executioner's
henchmen, as was the custom in old England. Bold friends of Plunkett managed to snatch his head from the fire and make off with it.
The scorch marks are still visible on the head, which is lovingly preserved a glass case. Plunkett's head travelled around Europe before
arriving in Drogheda; pity he was never so well travelled in his live lifetime.
Kells, in County Meath, is the site of Kells Monastery, founded in the 6th century, which produced the ancient and priceless 8th century Book
of Kells, now on display at Trinity College, Dublin.
Trim, on the river Boyne, is the usual starting point for a tour of the Boyne valley, and was the capital of Meath, granted to Hugh De Lacy
by Henry II at the time of the Norman conquest. The town is distinguished by the ruins of Trim Castle, Ireland's largest Anglo-Norman
structure, also known as King John's Castle. The castle was built in 1172 by Hugh de Lacy (who was murdered in 1186) and visited by
King John in 1210. The castle was at the centre of every battle during the middle ages and at one time the future king of England, Henry
V, and the Duke of Gloucester were imprisoned here by Richard 2nd. If you saw the Scots storming York Castle in Mel Gibson's Braveheart you
saw Trim Castle - the scene was filmed there, with units of the Irish Army taking part as extras.
Near Tullyallen, a marker in a field commemorates the Battle of the Boyne where William of Orange defeated James 2nd army of French and Irish in
July 1690. Even today this is still celebrated by the Orange men in the north of Ireland!
The Hill of Tara is located just south of Trim, and was the ancient palace of the old high kings of Ireland. Not much is left now except for
traces of earthworks on green hills in green fields, but it dates back to the second millennium BC and is central to many legends and is central
to the 12th century Book of Leinster, which describes Tara in its heyday in the 3rd century, when it was a thriving centre with grand wooden
buildings and inhabited by great warrior kings who whilst pagan, ruled with great fairness. From the heights of the earthworks, it is easy to
not only see into the distance but into the past, a past of heady stories - tales of intoxicating drinks and chariot-driving high kings, old
hags who transform themselves into beautiful women and singing blocks of stone (the Lia F�il - the Stone of Destiny) which announce the presence
of future kings. Tara is quite mysterious, and has a brooding yet magical, mythical atmosphere. - The stuff of legends, home of gods and heroes -
well worth a visit.
Bective Abbey, the substantial remains of Ireland's second Cistercian monastery founded in 1147 is on the way from Tara to Trim.
Bru' na Boinne (`the Palace of the Boyne') is the most spectacular ancient site in Ireland. Located near Slane it has at least 15 passage graves
from Neolithic times, some of them unexcavated. The three main sites are called Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. Unfortunately it can become very
crowed especially in summer, and it is also bureaucratic overkill with its zealously regimented visitors centre control over the site.
Nearby Newgrange on a hilltop is visible for miles, a 350 foot diameter mound that sparkles like a jewel in the sunshine with its white quartz
construction. Now restored in the 60s - hopefully (maybe!) to the original builders design, it is truly spectacular. Built around 3500-3000BC,
as well as being one of the most impressive works of the Neolithic age in the world, it is also one of the oldest, outdating Stonehenge by at
least a millennium! This is one of the finest monuments still surviving of a culture that stretched across the Atlantic and Mediterranean
shores from Malta to Scandinavia - a sophisticated, scientific, educated civilization that lasted for over 3000 years before the birth
of Christ.
Knowth can be visited on a separate tour from the Bru na Boinne Visitors Centre. It is about the same size as Newgrange. Only part of the site
is open but it has superb lavish kebstones placed around the mound, which are decorated with spirals and other patterns. The Neolithic Irish
carvers were pre-eminent and carved more than any other Neolithic carvers, with over half of the works discovered so far coming from Knowth.
Nearby Dowth, the third of the great mounds has a passage made diametrically opposite to the one at Newgrange so that it is illuminated by
the winter solstice.
The great passage tomb at Loughcrew, virtually unknown, and possibly the oldest known cemetery in the world, gives visitors an unrivalled
glimpse into the beliefs and customs of four thousand years ago. The massive prehistoric mound is nothing less than the Irish equivalent
of Egypt's pyramids; both are burial sites, both witness the passage of the dead from this world to the next. As with the pyramids, Loughcrew
continues to puzzle, perplex and amaze even today. What's more this burial complex predates the Pyramids by at least 2000 years.
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