Best Historic Places in County Meath, Republic of Ireland - Map and Reviews

Bellinter House is 15 miles from Drogheda near Narvan. Positioned on the side of the River Boyne the house is set on sweeping lawns with 12 acres of parkland beyond. Bellinter House is a Palladian style house with six bays built over three floors (including basement) made of limestone. Adjoining the main part of the building; by single story arcades, are two storey wings which create a courtyard. A stable block, ice house and other outbuildings can also be found within the grounds. Facilities Bellinter House is now a boutique hotel offering 34 bedrooms. It also has a modern addition in the form of a pool house with glass wall overlooking the countryside. The hotel boasts an award winning restaurant; The Eden, situated in the vaulted cellar serving locally produced seasonal food and the Bellinter Bar which is traditionally furnished. The building was classed by the Irish government to be of significant architectural significance and so the grounds and building are accessible throughout the year free of charge. The hotel is also a wedding venue with civil ceremonies being held in either the vaulted cellar or east wing. Bellinter House was designed for the Preston family; merchants from Dublin, by Richard Castle a leading Architect in 1750. The main building was designed for the family with the side wings being used as the kitchens and servants quarters along with the stables. The estate at that time was around 600 acres used as grazing and woodland. In 1892 the house the house was bequeathed to a Gustavas Briscoe a family friend and in 1907 his son Cecil inherited the estate. The last Briscoe; George, sold the estate in 1955 and after being sold once more was in the hands of the Irish Land Commission. The Commission split the land into farms of 50 acres and left the house abandoned until 1965 when it was sold along with 12 acres of land to a religious order, The Sisters of Sion. To raise the money for the extensive repairs the sisters grew and sold flowers and tomatoes on a commercial basis and once renovated ran the house as a retreat. The sisters finally sold the house to Jay Bourke and John Reynolds in 2003 and the house was converted into a boutique hotel.

Bective Abbey is 6 south of Navan in the middle of a farmer's field overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath. The large medieval abbey is a collection of well preserved ruins and is surrounded by an outer wall. The main part of the fortified abbey is built over three floors and includes cloisters and a tower giving it the appearance of a fortress rather than an abbey. The majority of the site consists of buildings from the 15th century with a few monastic details such as the sculpture of a kneeling monk, which can be seen in the south cloister. Facilities The abbey is well signposted but to gain access to the site you must first climb through a small hole in a gate, walk across a field and finally climb over a small wall, so come prepared with the appropriate footwear. There are two information panels for visitors to read about the history of the abbey on the site. Bective Abbey was built in 1147 by King Murchad of Meath, Murchad O'Mael-Sheachlainn, for the Cistercian monks from Mellfort and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was thought to be one of Irelands most important monastic sites. The abbey along with the Abbey of St. Thomas in Dublin was granted to Hugh de Lacy. After his death in 1186 both abbey's wanted his body to be buried at their site, finally it was decided that his body was buried at Bective and his head in Dublin. This decision caused great feuding between the monks and in 1205 the Bishop of Meath along with two judges decided that the body should be moved to Dublin. Following the English invasion in 1228 the abbey was fortified and used as a safe haven for the English and visitors from Europe. The number of monks declined significantly in the 15th century and because of this the cloisters were significantly reduced in size and the south aisles of the church with its arcades were demolished. They did however build two towers making it the most heavily fortified abbey in Ireland. During the reign of King Henry VIII in 1536 the abbey was closed following dissolution and was changed into a Tudor manor house for use by his civil servants. By 1540 the roof had be removed for use in another of the king's properties and was left abandoned. The Arts The film Braveheart, staring and directed by Mel Gibson, used Bective Abbey as a filming location in 1995.

Newgrange is one of the most extraordinary prehistoric monuments in the world, a passage tomb built approximately 5,200 years ago in County Meath that predates both Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids by several centuries. The site is located in the rich agricultural valley of the River Boyne, an area so densely packed with Neolithic monuments that it has been recognised as one of the world's great prehistoric landscapes and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Brú na Bóinne, the Bend of the Boyne. The monument consists of a large circular mound approximately 80 metres across and 13 metres high, built with an estimated 200,000 tonnes of stone and earth. Within the mound a 19-metre stone-lined passage leads to a cruciform central chamber whose corbelled stone roof has remained waterproof for over five millennia, a testament to the extraordinary engineering skill of the Neolithic builders. The passage and chamber were constructed in precise alignment with the rising sun at the winter solstice, so that on and around the shortest day of the year sunlight enters through a specially constructed roof-box above the passage entrance and travels along its entire length to illuminate the chamber floor in a shaft of gold. The fact that this alignment was deliberately engineered five thousand years ago, at a time when human civilisation in Ireland had no writing, no metal tools and no wheeled vehicles, is genuinely astonishing. The precision required to align the passage across a distance of nearly twenty metres to within a fraction of a degree represents a level of astronomical observation and architectural planning that challenges comfortable assumptions about the capabilities of prehistoric societies. The exterior of the monument is also visually striking. The facade facing the southeast is reconstructed in brilliant white quartz from the Wicklow Mountains, the stones interspersed with large dark granite boulders from County Louth. The effect is dramatic and somewhat controversial among archaeologists, since the reconstruction represents an interpretation rather than a certainty. The kerb of large kerbstones surrounding the base of the mound includes several decorated with the abstract spiral and geometric patterns that characterise Neolithic art at Brú na Bóinne, including the famous triple spiral stone at the entrance. Visits are by guided tour only, departing from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre across the river, and booking in advance is strongly recommended. The annual winter solstice illumination is allocated by lottery and is applied for by thousands of people from around the world.

Ardbraccan House is a substantial Georgian country house located near the town of Navan in County Meath, in the heart of Ireland's ancient east. Situated on the coordinates 53.66090, -6.74984, the estate lies a short distance northwest of Navan itself, amid the fertile limestone plains that make this part of Meath some of the most historically rich and agriculturally productive land in all of Ireland. The house is notable primarily as a fine example of eighteenth-century Irish domestic architecture and for its long association with the Church of Ireland diocese of Meath, having served for many generations as the official residence of the Church of Ireland Bishops of Meath. This ecclesiastical heritage gives the property a distinct character that sets it apart from many of its contemporaries among the Georgian country houses of the Irish midlands. The site of Ardbraccan has a history that stretches back far beyond the current house. The name Ardbraccan derives from the Irish "Ard Breacáin," meaning the height or promontory of Breacán, a reference to Saint Breacán or Breccan, an early Irish Christian saint associated with the area. There was a significant early monastic settlement at Ardbraccan, and the site was considered an important ecclesiastical centre in early medieval Ireland. This ancient Christian heritage made it a natural seat for later Church of Ireland bishops, providing a continuity of religious association stretching from the early medieval period through to modern times. The present house was largely developed during the eighteenth century, when the Bishops of Meath undertook substantial building and improvement works in keeping with the fashions of the Georgian era. The estate thus layers centuries of history, from its early Christian origins through its life as an episcopal palace to its more recent uses. The house itself is a handsome, well-proportioned Georgian structure, reflecting the restrained classical elegance typical of Irish country house architecture of the period. Built in cut stone with regular sash windows and a dignified façade, the building conveys a sense of solidity and quiet authority appropriate to its long role as an episcopal residence. The surrounding demesne includes mature parkland with fine specimen trees, many of which have reached impressive age and girth over the centuries of the estate's existence. Standing in the grounds on a still morning, one hears birdsong from the old trees and, in the distance, the gentle movement of the surrounding agricultural landscape of County Meath, with its broad fields and hedgerows. The broader landscape around Ardbraccan is quintessentially Meath — gently rolling, intensively farmed, and extraordinarily dense with archaeological and historical significance. The Hill of Tara, one of Ireland's most sacred ancient sites and the traditional seat of the High Kings of Ireland, lies only a few kilometres to the south. The Boyne Valley, with its extraordinary concentration of Neolithic passage tombs including Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, is within easy reach to the northeast. The town of Navan, the county town of Meath, is just minutes away and provides all practical amenities. This setting means that Ardbraccan sits at the centre of one of the most historically layered regions in northwestern Europe, making it a natural part of any serious exploration of Ireland's ancient east. In more recent times Ardbraccan House passed out of Church of Ireland ownership and became a private property. The estate has been used for various purposes, and the house and its demesne remain a feature of the local landscape, though it is not a conventional tourist attraction with regular public opening hours. Visitors to the area should be aware that access to the house and private grounds is restricted, as is the case with many such private estates in Ireland. However, the wider Ardbraccan area, including the remains of the early Christian ecclesiastical site and the old church associated with Saint Breacán, can be explored nearby and offers genuine historical interest to those willing to seek it out. The local roads around the estate afford pleasant views of the demesne's parkland and its mature tree canopy. One of the more fascinating aspects of Ardbraccan's history is the sheer depth of its layered significance — a site that was sacred in early Christian Ireland, that became the seat of a powerful medieval and later Anglican diocese, that was shaped into a Georgian estate in the age of the Ascendancy, and that now exists as a private house in the Irish countryside. The transition from early monastic settlement to episcopal palace to Georgian country house to private residence traces, in miniature, much of the broader history of religion, power, and landownership in Ireland across more than a thousand years. For those with an interest in Irish ecclesiastical history, Georgian architecture, or the palimpsest quality of the Irish historic landscape, Ardbraccan repays attention even from the road and the surrounding lanes.