Louth Tours

About Louth

County Louth is Ireland's smallest county but one of its most historically dense. Sitting on the corridor between Dublin and Belfast, it packs 5,000 years of heritage into a compact landscape of medieval towns, monastic sites, and a wild coastal peninsula. Monasterboice, 10 kilometres north of Drogheda, is one of the most important early Christian sites in Ireland. The monastery was founded in the 5th century by St Buithe, a disciple of St Patrick, and its two great high crosses are extraordinary works of stone carving. Muiredach's Cross — dating from the early 10th century, standing 5.5 metres tall — is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Irish religious art, its panels depicting Old Testament scenes carved for a population that could not read. The West Cross (the Tall Cross), at roughly 7 metres, is the highest high cross in Ireland. A round tower and the ruins of two churches complete the site, which is freely accessible year-round. Carlingford is the jewel of County Louth — a small walled medieval town on the southern shore of Carlingford Lough, with the Cooley Mountains rising steeply behind and the Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland across the water. King John's Castle (a 12th-century Norman fortress) overlooks the harbour, and the intact medieval streetscape includes the Mint, the Tholsel, and Taafe's Castle. The town is renowned for its restaurants and for Carlingford Oysters. The Cooley Peninsula rises behind Carlingford to over 500 metres at Slieve Foye (588 metres, the county's highest point). The Táin Way — a 40-kilometre long-distance walking route — circles the peninsula through the landscape of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (the Cattle Raid of Cooley), one of the oldest vernacular narratives in Western Europe. Old Mellifont Abbey, 10 kilometres northwest of Drogheda, was the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded in 1142 by St Malachy of Armagh. Its defining feature is the 13th-century octagonal lavabo — the finest preserved medieval lavabo in Ireland — where monks washed their hands before meals. The 14th-century chapter house retains its vaulted ceiling. Drogheda itself offers Millmount Museum, St Laurence's Gate (one of the finest medieval town gates in Europe), and the Boyne Greenway connecting to the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge.