Swords

Nothing to do with weapons. Colmcille is said to have founded it around 560 and blessed the well that gave it its name, and Sord Cholmcille is the fuller form. The etymology is genuinely unsettled: clear or pure water, a communal well, or a sward of grass. It is now one of the largest towns in the country, with over 40,000 people.

Swords is said to have been founded by St Colmcille around 560, and legend has him bless the well that gives the town its name, Sord, clear or pure. The curve of the streets follows the enclosure of the early monastery, and its 26-metre round tower survives. Brian Boru is said to have had his requiem Mass here after Clontarf. In the Middle Ages the manor belonged to the Crown and was granted to each Archbishop of Dublin; Swords Castle was built in the early 13th century. Swords sent two members to the Irish parliament until 1801, and had 1,788 people in 1841. In 1994 it became the county town of Fingal.

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

• Swords · round tower · under 1 km
• Lusk · round tower · 8 km
• St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton · holy well · 12 km
• Aideen's Grave · dolmen · 13 km
• St James' Church, Dublin (Church of Ireland) · holy well · 14 km
• Ashtown Castle · castle · 13 km
• Dublin Castle · castle · 13 km
• Baggotrath Castle · castle · 14 km

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

• Clontarf · Good Friday 1014: Brian Boru's forces break Leinster and Dublin's Vikings — and Brian is killed praying in his tent. Now a quiet seafront suburb.
• Drumanagh promontory fort · A headland fort that has yielded Roman coins, brooches and pottery — the strongest evidence of a Roman trading post (or a Romanised Irish king) in Ireland.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.