The location includes an outstanding 115 foot tall round tower and boasts some of the finest examples of 10thcentury Celtic High Crosses in Ireland. Muiredach’s Cross is Ireland’s most beautiful High Cross and West Cross is the tallest remaining High Cross in the country.

By 1170, Mellifont Abbey housed 100 monks and 300 lay brothers and was the main abbey in Ireland until, like Bective Abbey three years prior, it was confiscated in 1539 by Henry VIII. Later, in 1690, it served as headquarters for William of Orange  during the Battle of the Boyne.

There are a number of historic sites located on the 518ft summit of the hill including the ruins of a college and friary church with its 62 ft high early Gothic tower. Legend has it the hill is also the burial place of one of Ireland’s earliest kings, Sláine. Located on the west side of the hill are the remains of a twelfth century Norman motte and bailey or ‘mound and castle’ built by Richard Fleming in the 1170s, the seat of the Flemings, barons of Slane.

Slane Castle dates back over 300 years, when the property was acquired by the family in 1701. Around that time, the Conynghams moved their main ancestral seat south from County Donegal to Slane.

In 1991, a fire in the castle caused extensive damage to the building and completely gutted the eastern section facing the River Boyne. The castle reopened in 2001 after the completion of a ten year restoration programme.

Since 1981, Slane Castle has hosted huge rock concerts – the natural amphitheater has an 80,000 person capacity.

In 2015 American company, Brown Forman, makers of Jack Daniels whiskey acquired the Slane Whiskey Distillery, housed in the stables of the castle. The whiskey is triple-casked in virgin American oak casks, seasoned Tennessee whiskey casks and in Spanish sherry casks.

The cloister (a covered walkway for contemplation and prayer) and the domestic buildings where the monks lived and worked were rebuilt on a smaller scale in the 15th century. Two sections of this cloister walkway survive.

Bective Abbey and its 1600 acres of land was confiscated in 1536, as part of the campaign by Henry VIII to control the wealth and power of the church. The abbey was converted into a great mansion with the insertion of new fireplaces, chimneys and large stone windows.

Together with nearby Trim Castle, Bective Abbey was used as a location during the shooting of Mel Gibson’s 1995 movie, Braveheart.

The town of Trim derives its name from Baile Átha Troim or ‘Town of the Ford of the Elder Trees which indicates that this was an important fording point on the River Boyne.

Over the centuries Trim Castle passed through different important families until the War of the Roses when it was eventually seized as a royal property.

Trim Castle was the location for King John’s Castle in the 1995 movie, ‘Braveheart’ directed by and starring Mel Gibson.