County Meath - Towns

Of similar size to Newgrange, Dowth has, unfortunately, suffered most from the ravages of time. Dowth has two modest chambers facing westwards.

Nearby is a memorial to John Boyle O'Reilly, a nineteenth-century Irish american Fenian who was born here.

An Interpretative Centre on the Boyne Valley is at present planned for a site on the south bank of the river in the townland of Roughgrange.

Services in Dowth

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17 miles (27 kms) north-west of Kells is the village of Drumconrath, surrounded by small lakes. The small islands in these lakes are mostly crannogs (artificial island) on which people lived from the late bronze Age until, in some cases, well into the 17th century. The village is also renowned as an angling centre.

Services in Drumconrath

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Translates from the Irish Droim an Rí, Hill of the King. Quite a small village, its main feature is Dunsany Castle. Lord Dunsany lived here until his recent death.

Services in Drumree

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Duleek - Daimhliag Chianain (the churchstone of St Cianan)

This little village is 5 miles (8km) south-west of Drogheda in the valley of the River Nanny. Its name comes from an ancient stone church - one of the first in Ireland - said to have been founded in the fifth century by St Patrick for his disciple St Cianan; no trace of the church remains.
The remains of St Mary's an Augustinian priory founded in 1182 by Hugh de Lacy stand on the site.

In a cemetery overlooking the village is the belfry of the ruined Priory of the Blessed Virgin (12th century). Grave slabs of the 16th and 17th centuries can be seen in the ruins, and the graveyards has two interesting crosses.

On a pedestal in the village is an unusual pillar cross, the Dowdall Cross, erected in 1601 as a memorial to the Bathe family. South east of the village an inscribed plaque bearing he date 1587 is set in the parapet of the bridge; this is reputedly the same bridge over which the Irish Jacobite Army retreated from the Boyne in 1690.

Services in Duleek

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Dunboyne Castle, an 18th century mansion replaced the old castle there as the seat of the Butlers, Lords of Dunboyne. The 12th Baron, John Butler, RC Bishop of Cork, lived there in the late 18th century after he had resigned his see, converted to the established church and married.

Services in Dunboyne

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