Drogheda

A walled Norman port at the lowest bridging point of the Boyne, and for a time a rival to Dublin — parliaments met here, and Poynings' Law was passed here in 1494. In September 1649 Cromwell stormed the town and put the garrison to the sword; the memory of it has never left Irish nationalism. St Peter's Church holds the head of St Oliver Plunkett.

• Hill of Tara · Seat of the High Kings, with the Lia Fáil that cried out under a rightful king — and, in 1899, holes dug by British Israelites hunting the Ark of the Covenant.
• The Boyne · 1 July 1690 (12 July new style): William beats James at Oldbridge. Fewer died than at Aughrim a year later, but this is the battle everyone remembers.
• Monasterboice · Muiredach's Cross (the finest high cross in Ireland, a 10th-century Bible carved in stone) and a round tower still standing after a Viking burning in 1097.
• Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) · Home of the Dagda, chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann, tricked out of it by his own son Aengus, god of love — who asked to stay 'a day and a night', meaning all days and all nights.
• Tara — the Lia Fáil · The Stone of Destiny, one of four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which roared beneath the foot of every rightful king of Ireland.
• Ardee — the ford of Ferdia · Áth Fhirdia: where Cú Chulainn fought his foster-brother Ferdia for three days, killed him with the gae bolga, and wept over his body. The town is named for the dead man.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.