Things to do
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Bective Abbey
A Cistercian abbey of 1147 on the Boyne, fortified into a house after the dissolution, so the cloister arcade and a tower stand together in an open field. It is unstaffed, unfenced and usually empty.
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Hill of Tara
The inauguration place of the high kings, a low ridge carrying a neolithic passage tomb, two linked ring forts and the standing Lia Fail, with a view said to cover half the counties of Ireland. It is an open field with a small visitor centre in a former church and no fee to walk it.
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Loughcrew Cairns
A group of passage tombs on the Slieve na Calliagh ridge, older than the pyramids, whose Cairn T is aligned on the equinox sunrise and carries some of the densest megalithic carving in Europe. The climb is steep and the key to the chamber is held seasonally.
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Trim Castle
The largest Norman castle in Ireland, begun by Hugh de Lacy in 1172, with a twenty-sided keep inside a curtain wall that still runs most of its circuit. The keep is only reachable on the guided tour and the grounds are free.
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Yellow Steeple
The east wall of the bell tower of Saint Mary's Augustinian abbey, forty metres of it left standing after the rest was pulled down in 1649 to keep it from Cromwell. It faces the castle across the river and is lit at night.