Dunshaughlin

A Meath commuter town that more than tripled in size between 1996 and 2022. It is named for St Seachnall, who founded a church here in the 5th century and is said to be buried there, and the townland of Lagore is known for a 7th-century crannóg where many antiquities were found. A famine workhouse still stands about 2 km away.

St Seachnall founded his church here in the 5th century, and the oldest reference to the name is an entry for 801 in the Annals of Ulster, as Domnaig Sechnaill. A Church of Ireland church was built north of the old church ruins in 1814 with money from the Board of First Fruits. The workhouse south of the town was built in 1840-41 for 400 inmates at a cost of about £6,000, and took its first admissions on 17 May 1841. During the famine it was extended and a burial ground was opened behind it.

In the First World War the workhouse housed Belgian refugees, some of whom died and were buried in the paupers' graveyard. In 1920-21 the Black and Tans used it as a barracks. After the workhouse system ended in 1922 the building served as a school, courthouse and factory, and by 2002 parts of it were a guest residence.

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

• Hill of Tara · royal site · 9 km
• Lia Fáil · tomb · 9 km
• Killeen Castle, Dunsany · castle · 4 km
• Dunsany Castle and Demesne · castle · 6 km
• Skryne Castle · castle · 8 km
• Athcarne Castle · castle · 14 km
• Dangan Castle · castle · 14 km

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

• 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.
• Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) · Home of the Dagda, chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann, won by Aengus, god of love, who asked to stay 'a day and a night', meaning all days and all nights. In the older telling Aengus plays the trick on his foster-father Elcmar; later versions make the victim the Dagda himself.
• 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.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.