GREAT DRIVES CO MEATH:IT WAS on a recent classic car run around Co Meath that it occurred to me that perhaps I've taken the roads of the Royal County for granted over the course of the articles in the Great Drives series. Only in one article have Meath roads featured, yet here is an abundance of great driving roads with little traffic going through a pastoral landscape. This route can be driven solely by the road signs, but Sheet 42 of the Ordanance Survey Discovery series is a worthwhile addition that will enhance your exploration.
Having waited on a sunny morning to view these roads at their best and used the town of Ashbourne as a starting point (it seems only a few years ago that it was little more than a sleepy village), I headed up the Slane road (N2) past Kilmoon Cross, with its old toll house, and on to the crossroads signposted left for Rathfeigh. Taking this road, we continued through Rathfeigh on to McKeown’s Crossroads, where we swung right towards the village of Skreen.
Skreen’s Irish name is An Scrín (The Shrine), and the village was once a noted religious centre, but today it provides a high point over the surrounding landscape with fine views.
Leave Skreen to the southwest and it’s an engaging drive down the short road to the N3. Turn right along the N3 for about 4km until you reach Philipstown Crossroads and turn southeast heading towards Bective. This road parallels the River Boyne, for much of its length, but, sadly views of the river are hidden from the road. At Bective Crossroads, take a short detour to the right to view a fine example of a fortress abbey, a Cistercian foundation dating back to the 12th century, which owed its establishment to Ó Maoleachlain, king of Meath, and was at one time a very important sanctuary.
Retracing your steps to Bective Crossroads, turn right and continue along the road which now becomes the R159 until it meets the R154.
Turn right and travel along the R154 through Trim with its magnificent castle and many religious ruins on either side of the River Boyne. The Irish name of Trim is Baile Átha Troim – the Town of the Ford of the Elder Tree, reflecting the town’s strategic location at the site of an ancient and important ford of the River Boyne.
Trim Castle was built by Hugh de Lacy at the time of the Norman invasion. Construction began in 1173, and this immense and imposing fortress is the largest of the Anglo-Norman fortresses in Ireland. An interesting aspect of its history was the imprisonment here of a future king of England, Prince Henry (later Henry V), by Richard II.
Leave Trim by the R154 heading northwest to Athboy, another town that derives it’s Irish name – Baile Átha Buí, the Town of the Yellow Ford, from its origins as a ford over the Boyne.
From Athboy we take the N51 through Delvin and continue until reaching a turn left signposted for the village of Raharney. At Raharney turn left along the R156, continuing on through Rathmoylon to the pretty hamlet of Summerhill, with its shaded village green.
As one leaves Summerhill by the R156, take the first turn off the new roundabout and shortly afterwards turn left again. This road takes us back across the R154 and past the beautifully wooded Dunsany and then once more across the N3. Then past the turn for Skreen, leading back to the N2 north of Kilmoon Cross, from where we began our exploration.
This is a rewarding drive through a landscape we tend to take for granted but which is the very heart of Celtic Ireland, with its many ruins and ancient sites allied to a very pleasing landscape.