Callan

The second town of the county. Legend has the high king Niall Caille drowning in the river here trying to save a servant, and the river is the King's River still. It had its charter in 1217, and in 1650 Cromwell's army besieged it and killed the defenders and townspeople who had taken refuge in the castle and the church.

William Marshal founded Callan in 1207, and it had its first charter in 1217. The name is reputedly from the High King Niall Caille, who in legend drowned in the flooded river trying to save his servant, and it has been called the King's River since. In 1650 Cromwell's army besieged the town; although its commander had secretly agreed to surrender, other defenders fought on, and all of them, with many townspeople who had taken refuge in the castle and church, were killed. On 15 February 1885 the first game of Gaelic football under the new GAA's rules was played on the Fair Green, and it ended scoreless. Callan marked its 800th year in 2007.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Callan ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

• Saint Augustine's Well · holy well · under 1 km
• Lady's Well, Danesfort · holy well · 9 km
• Killamery · high cross · 9 km
• Killamery High Cross · high cross · 9 km
• Aghaviller · round tower · 12 km
• Ballyboodan Ogham Stone · ogham stone · 14 km
• Burnchurch Castle · castle · 6 km
• Kilkenny Castle · castle · 14 km
• Grace's Old Castle · castle · 14 km
• Maudlin Castle · castle · 15 km

Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.

• Dunmore Cave · Where the annals say Vikings massacred a thousand people in 928. Bones of women and children were found inside in 1973 — and a Viking silver hoard in 1999.
• Fethard town walls · Ireland's most complete medieval town walls — and set into them, a sheela-na-gig facing the road, a fertility figure guarding a Norman town.
• Kells Priory · Three acres walled and studded with tower houses, which is why it is known locally as the Seven Castles — it looks less like a priory than a fortress. Founded about 1193, and burned three times in its first 150 years, once by Edward Bruce’s army on Palm Sunday 1316.
• Kilkenny — the burning of Petronilla · Bishop Ledrede accused the moneylender Alice Kyteler of feeding a demon and killing four husbands. Kyteler slipped away. Her maid Petronilla de Meath, tortured into confessing, was flogged and burned on 3 November 1324 — the first such burning in Ireland, and it fell on the servant.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.