The Meath Weather Cam

   Meath is highlighted in Green                           Meath Crest 

Facts:

Province: Leinster

County Capital: Navan

Code: MH

Area: 2,342 km²

Population: 163,000

County Meath (Irish: Contae na Mí) is a county in Ireland, often informally called The Royal County. The capital county town is Navan, where the county hall and government are located, although Trim, the former county town, has historical significance and remains a sitting place of the circuit court. Trim contains Ireland's largest Norman castle and was the setting for many Norman-Irish parliaments.

Trim Castle

Meath is also home to Kells, with its round tower and monastic past, and Slane, known for its castle and annual rock concert and the Ledwidge Cottage Museum.

                                                             Kells Round Tower

Meath (meaning "middle") was formed from the eastern part of the province of Midhe, but now forms part of Leinster. Historically this province of Meath included all of the current county as well as all of Westmeath and parts of Cavan, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Dublin and Kildare. The High King of Ireland sat at Tara in Meath. The archaeological complex of Brú na Bóinne is 5,000 years old and includes the burial sites of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, in the northeast of the county, is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.

Here are the links for Newgrange, Knowth & Dowth if you want more info.

Newgrange

                                                 Newgrange Entrance Stone

                            Knowth

The seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Meath, is located in Mullingar, County Westmeath - outside the county but within the historic diocese of Meath.

County Meath also has the only two Gaeltacht areas in the province of Leinster at Ráth Cairn and Báile Ghib.

For information on the Meath Football team, click here

Slane Castle

Situated in the Boyne valley overlooking the River Boyne just a few miles upstream from the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne, Slane Castle in its existing form was reconstructed under the direction of William Burton Conyngham, together with his nephew the first Marquess Conyngham.

The reconstruction dates back to 1785 and is principally the work of James Gandon, James Wyatt and Francis Johnston. Francis Johnston is responsible for the gothic gates on the Mill Hill.

The Conynghams are originally a noble Scottish family, and first settled in Ireland in 1611 in County Donegal. There has been an active association between the Conynghams and the Slane Estate dating back over 300 years, ever since the property was purchased by the family following the Williamite Confiscations in 1701. Prior to this, Slane had been possessed by the Flemings, aristocratic Anglo-Norman Catholics who cast their lot with the Jacobites. Christopher Fleming, 22nd of Slane, 17th Lord, Viscount Longford (1669 – 14 July 1726), was the last Fleming Lord of Slane. The present head of the Conyngham family and occupant of Slane Castle is the 8th Marquess Conyngham.

In 1991, a fire in the Castle caused extensive damage to the building and completely gutted the Eastern section facing the River Boyne. With the completion of the 10-year restoration program in 2001, Slane Castle has once again opened its doors.

Conyngham, under the name "Henry Mountcharles" (he was then self-styled Earl of Mount Charles), ran a campaign for a difficult seat in Louth on behalf of Fine Gael in the 1992 Irish general election.

Slane Concert

Slane Concert (often referred as just Slane) is a concert held most years since 1981 in Slane Castle in Slane village, County Meath, in Ireland. Slane lies between Navan and Drogheda, about 45 km northwest of Dublin. Concerts typically occur on a Saturday in August, from noon to 22:00. However, the most recent (2009) edition of the event saw Oasis play the castle on 20 June. The grounds of Slane Castle form a natural amphitheatre. Attendance is usually around 80,000 - 100,000.

For more on concerts in Slane click here

Towns and villages

Towns

• Ashbourne
• Dunshaughlin
• Enfield
• Julianstown
• Kells
• Kinnegad
• Navan
• Oldcastle
• Trim

Villages

• Athboy
• Bellewstown, Bettystown
• Clonard, Clonee
• Drumconrath, Duleek, Dunboyne,
• Gormanston
• Kildalkey,
• Laytown, Longwood
• Mornington, Moynalty
• Nobber
• Rathmolyon
• Skryne
• Slane
• Summerhill
• Oldcastle
• Ballivor

Geography

• Rivers Boyne, Blackwater, Nanny, Inny, Devlin, Knightsbrook, Hurley, Tremblestone, Tolka, Ward, Pinkeen, Yellow, Broadmeadow, Athboy, Clonymeath, Dangan, Moynalty and Owneroe.
• 10.4 km of coastline on the Irish Sea
• Bordered by counties Cavan, Kildare, Louth, Monaghan, Offaly and Westmeath, as well as Fingal, one of the four parts of the historic County Dublin.

                                   River Boyne

Infrastructure

Road

• The main road through Meath is the Dublin-Cavan road, the N3 currently being upgraded to mainly motorway standard from the county's south east border at Clonee to the north west border shared with Cavan. Some section of new road have already open to traffic.
• The M4 motorway, which is partly in County Kildare and partly in Meath.
• The M1 motorway Dublin - Belfast road.
• The N2 road bypasses the second largest town in the County, Ashbourne. This road is officially a dual carriageway but effectively a motorway as it has a motorway speed limit of 120km/h. The majority part of this route at the end of the dual carriageway is single carriageway standard two lane road.

Rail

• There is a frequent commuter train service to the coastal villages of East Meath, serving Laytown.
• Navan is currently served by a spur railway line from the Dublin-Belfast main line, for freight traffic (zinc and lead concentrates from Tara Mines in Navan to Dublin Port) connecting at Drogheda. The direct rail line to Dublin currently remains abandoned, though its path is reasonably intact. For info on proposed new rail link in to Dunboyne and beyond, click here.
• There is a commuter train service from Enfield. Although the service is very infrequent (Only 8 trains a day to dublin with no direct trains from 4 pm - 9 pm), not many villages like that of Enfield, have a commuter service at all. 

Transport 21 – the Ten-Year Transport Investment Framework

Transport 21 is the capital investment framework through which the transport system in Ireland will be developed, over the period 2006 to 2015. The Government has agreed a total investment for the framework of €34 billion ($53.5 billion, £26.8 billion) over the ten-year period.  This unprecedented level of capital investment will be used to transform Ireland’s transport system. For full details on plans under Transport 21 covering rail, bus, road and air transport, please visit www.transport21.ie.

Places of interest

• Castles at Trim, Slane (private), Dunsany (limited opening), Killeen (being converted to a hotel, golf coarse & country club)
• Religious ruins at Trim (two), Bective, Slane (two), Dunsany, Skryne (Skreen)
• 2500-year-old mound structures of disputed origin at Telltown.
• Bru Na Boinne Unesco World Heritage Site.