Around Drogheda

When I told friends that I was visiting Drogheda for a couple of days there were some odd looks. The county Louth town 50km north of Dublin is not usually the first choice to spend time in Ireland and there were uncharitable mutters that Cromwell had the right idea when he massacred the town in revenge for Protestant deaths in the 1640s Confederate Wars. Nonetheless that was where I was heading in very Irish non-summer summer weather. The plan was to take in sights accessible on foot in and near the town and I took the pleasant 30 minute train ride up the north Dublin coastline from Connolly Station getting closer to the coast (like at Malahide below) than is possible by road.

With a population of over 40,000 and part of Dublin’s commuter belt, Drogheda is now the 11th largest town in Ireland. Its name derives from the Irish Droichead Átha ‘bridge of the ford’. Looking downstream on the Boyne River is the modern De Lacy footbridge, a reminder of Drogheda’s medieval history. Anglo-Norman Hugh De Lacy was part of Henry II’s invasion force in 1172 which took Dublin after it landed near Waterford. De Lacy was rewarded for his efforts with the stewardship of Dublin Castle and the lordship of Meath. While there were previous Viking settlements on both side of the Boyne, De Lacy is considered the founder of Drogheda as he granted its first charter in 1194. The bridge named for him opened in 2005. Behind it is the magnificent 30m,18-span limestone and iron Boyne Viaduct linking Dublin and Belfast by rail. Dating from the 1850s it towers over the eastern approach to the town.

Pre-dating De Lacy’s Drogheda is Old Mellifont Abbey, a few kilometres west of town. In 1142 St Malachy of Armagh built Mellifont, Ireland’s first Cirstercian monastery, with help from St Bernard of Clairvaux’s monks. In Irish “An Mhainistir Mhór” (the Big Monastery), it was a massive structure housing 100 monks and 300 lay brothers. Mellifont was the site of a famous synod in 1152 which set out the Irish church in Roman fashion and created the four archbishopal sees of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam and Cashel. The abbey became a private residence after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539. The Treaty of Mellifont, which ended the Nine Years War, was signed here in 1603, and William of Orange used the abbey as headquarters during the nearby Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The monks moved to New Mellifont Abbey 7kms away and the old monastery descended into ruin. Among the few surviving structures are the two-storey octagonal lavabo (centre of image) where monks washed their hands before eating and the chapter house (left) which served as a common room.

North of Mellifont is evidence of earlier Irish history at Monasterboice, Irish for “monastery of Buite”. Saint Buite (Buíte mac Bronach or Boetius) founded this settlement in the late 5th century which makes it older than Clonmacnoise and Glendalough. Little remains of the monastery except for a graveyard which contains the ruins of two ancient churches, a round tower and three splendid high crosses. They include the 10th century Muiredach’s High Cross at 5.5m, the tallest high cross in Ireland. The 28m-tall round tower has an underground foundation of 60cms which is small for round towers. The entrance is above ground level to maintain structural integrity. It was built in the late 10th century and damaged by fire in 1098.

Older still are the neolithic 5000-year-old passage tombs at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth but tours to all three places were booked out weeks in advance and inclement weather meant I did not fancy a long walk in the rain just to see the Bru Na Boinne visitors centre. However I did walk 5km along the Boyne Greenway riverside path. The river’s name comes from the proto-Celtic “bouwinda” meaning a white cow and was associated with the goddess Boann. Rare plants grow in the riparian area including Marsh orchid, cowbane and frogbit. I also kept my eyes peeled for otters but did not see any.

Past the cable-stayed Mary McAleese Boyne Valley motorway bridge is the entrance to the Battle of the Boyne Visitor’s Centre. The Battle of the Boyce was fought over a wide area west of Drogheda in July 1690. Here the forces forces of King James II and King William III met in a proxy battle for the throne of England which remains feted in Northern Irish Protestant tradition. A battle cannon lines the entrance to the site.

I intended to check out the visitors centre but being a Saturday, the site also hosted the Oldbridge Parkrun which tramped 5km cross country through the battlefield. The rain did not put me off and after running the tricky course in 25.39 I posed for a wet selfie in front of Oldbridge House, home of the visitors centre.

After drying off, I went up to the big house. Oldbridge House was built half a century after the famous battle. In 1729 John Coddington purchased Oldbridge Estate from the 5th Earl of Drogheda and he or his nephew Dixie Coddington built the house on a bend on the river in the 1740s, reputedly designed by Dublin architect George Darley. The Coddingtons lived here employing many locals in the house and gardens. In the 1970s a series of raids on the house forced the family to leave. They sold the house and estate to the state in 2000 which restored it as a museum.

The House is surrounded by beautiful gardens including the eight-sided Octagon Garden which contained orchards, the kitchen garden and Coddington’s market garden. In the early 20th century the Coddingtons built heated glasshouses and established a thriving market-garden business serving Drogheda and Dublin.

After enjoying the gardens I paid €5 to tour the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre in the ground floor of the house. The battle was enormous. William had 36,000 men and James had 25,000 – the largest number of troops ever deployed on an Irish battlefield.  The consequences were also enormous. At stake were the British throne, French dominance of Europe and religious power in Ireland. William had English, Scottish, Dutch, Danish and Huguenot troops while James mainly relied on Irish Catholics, reinforced by 6500 troops sent by French King Louis XIV. William had deposed his father-in-law James in the Glorious Revolution and arrived at Kinsale in 1689. Arriving south of the Boyne on June 28, 1690 (according to the Julian calendar then still in use in Britain and Ireland) he decided to “hazard a battle” against the Williamites camped north of the river. Depicted are two Jacobite musketmen.

William planned a pincer movement and sent 10,000 men west towards Slane which drew the bulk of the Jacobites upstream in response, including James’s best French troops. However marshy land prevented either side from engaging. That left 6000 Jacobites at Oldbridge to confront 26,000 Williamites. William crossed at Drybridge with 3500 mounted troops and on July 1 (Julian calendar) the fighting took place south of the river, as the vastly outnumbered Jacobites desperately defended their position against the advancing Williamites. Jan Wyck painted this “Battle of the Boyne” in 1693.

Although William’s flanking movement was a failure, the weight of numbers against raw Irish recruits told at Oldbridge. The superior firepower of William’s elite Dutch Blue Guards drove back Jacobite foot soldiers until pinned down by Jacobite cavalry. When Williamite cavalry crossed the river the game was up and James’s forces retreated across the River Nanny towards Duleek, leaving 2000 dead on the field.

Though the Jacobites escaped mostly intact, James was demoralised and fled towards Waterford, and exile in France. His army was defeated at Aughrim, ensuring Protestant domination of Ireland, with penal laws passed against Catholics in the following years. The Battle of the Boyne became an occasion for Northern Irish Loyalist celebration every July 12 (the day after the battle according to the Gregorian calendar). In 2007 Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed newly appointed Northern Irish first minister Ian Paisley where he presented him with a Jacobite cavalry musket from the battle.

Afterwards I walked back to Drogheda and went up to Millmount Tower. Millmount is a martello tower on the south bank of the river and hosts Drogheda’s museum. The mound is reputedly 3000 years old and supposedly hosts the body of Celtic poet Amegin. De Lacy built a defensive Motte and Bailey here, overlooking the mouth of the Boyne. During Oliver Cromwell’s attack on Drogheda on September 11, 1649 over 2000 men were killed at Millmount. Later it served as an army barracks and the Martello Tower was built during the Napoleonic War in 1808. The tower was badly damaged in the Irish Civil War in 1922 and was restored in 2000.

St Laurence’s Gate is on the east side of town, north of the river. Despite the name, it is a barbican not a gateway and defended the now destroyed entrance gate. It is regarded as one of the finest of its kind in Europe and consists of two lofty circular towers, connected by a wall with an archway. The name is derived from St Laurence friary outside the gate.

Like Oldbridge House, the Tholsel was designed by George Darley in the 1760s. It was a bank branch for a century before becoming Drogheda’s tourist office which remains open while restoration work continues. Tholsels were municipal and administrative buildings used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade in Irish towns. There are other notable tholsels in Kilkenny and Clonmel.

The 14th century Magdalene Tower occupies the highest part of Drogheda north of the river. The belfry tower is all that remains of an extensive Dominican friary built in 1224. Above a Gothic arch are two storeys connected by a spiral staircase. Henry VIII dissoved the monastery and the tower battlements were badly damaged during Cromwell’s siege of 1649.

St Peter’s Catholic church dominates the Drogheda landscape from the viewpoint of Millmount. The French Gothic revival church was built in the 1880s on West St, now the town’s main shopping street. The church has a tall west gable, rose window and contains the national shrine of St. Oliver Plunkett, the 17th century Catholic archbishop of Armagh. Plunkett went into hiding after the fictitious English Popish Plot in 1678, but was arrested, accused of plotting a French invasion. He was found guilty of high treason in June 1681 “for promoting the Roman faith,” condemned to death and was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He was canonised in 1975, the first Irish saint in 700 years and his head was returned to Drogheda where it remains on display at St Peter’s.

Weather apart. I enjoyed my time in De Lacy’s town, Cromwell or no Cromwell. Drogheda has a gritty energy with roots to Ireland’s deep past yet with eyes firmly on the future. With a growing and diverse population, It remains Ireland’s largest town in the crucial corridor between the island’s largest cities of Dublin and Belfast.