Boyle

Built around a Cistercian abbey of 1161 whose church still stands nearly complete, and King House, a great Georgian barracks-mansion. Nearby Lough Key was the seat of the MacDermots, princes of Moylurg, on their island castle.

• Carrowkeel passage tombs · Fourteen Neolithic tombs on the Bricklieve ridges, one aligned so the midsummer sunset shines down its passage — the mirror of Newgrange, with no crowds.
• Rathcroghan (Cruachan) · Queen Medb's royal seat: 240 monuments over four square miles, including Oweynagat, the cave called 'the gate to Hell' — one claimed home of Halloween.
• Moytura · Second Battle of Mag Tuired: the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomorians. Lugh of the Long Arm kills his grandfather Balor of the Evil Eye with a sling-stone through the eye.
• Rathcroghan — Oweynagat · The 'cave of the cats', birthplace of Queen Medb and doorway to the Otherworld: at Samhain its creatures pour out into the world. One root of Halloween.
• Cruachan — Medb's court · Where Medb and Ailill's 'pillow talk' about whose wealth was greater started the Cattle Raid of Cooley — over one brown bull.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.