The towns of Wragby, Market Rasen, Horncastle, Mablethorpe, Grimsby and Alford also are close to Louth.

The Greenwich Meridian passes through the town and is marked on Eastgate with plaques on the north and south sides of the street, just east of the junction with Northgate, although this location is known to be incorrect as the line actually passes through a point just west of Eastgate's junction with Church Street.

Three handaxes have been found on the Wolds surrounding Louth, dating from between 424,000 and 191,000 years ago, indicating inhabitation in the Paleolithic era.

[4] Bronze Age archeological finds include a 'barbed and tanged' arrowhead found in the grounds of Monks' Dyke Tennyson College.

[5] St Helen's Spring, at the Gatherums, off Aswell Street, is dedicated to a popular medieval saint, the mother of Constantine the Great, the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian,[6] but is thought to be a Christianised Romano-British site for veneration of the pagan water-goddess Alauna.

[8] Æthelhard, a Bishop of Winchester who was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 793, was an abbot of Louth in his early life.

[11] Following its dissolution in 1536 it fell into ruin and, today, only earthworks survive, on private land, between Louth and Keddington.

Monks' Dyke, now a ditch, was originally dug to supply the abbey with water from the springs of Ashwell and St. Helen's at Louth.

[14] In 1643, Sir Charles Bolles, a resident of Louth, raised a 'hastily-got-up soldiery' for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

One woman climbed a chimney to survive, another was the only survivor from a row of twelve terrace houses, which were destroyed by the flood waters.

[23] Similar confusion exists in an inventory of Louth's St. James Church, written in 1486 and transcribed in 1512, where he is referred to as a Bishop of Auxerre, France.

Æthelwold, the Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, was actively seeking relics for his newly rebuilt Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire and sent his monks to Louth to raid Herefrith's shrine.

[24] From an 11th-century account, Æthelwold had: ...heard of the merits of the blessed Herefrid bishop of Lincoln resting in Louth a chief town of the same church.

When all those dwelling there had been put to sleep by a cunning ruse, a trusty servant took him out of the ground, wrapped him in fine line cloth, and with all his fellows rejoicing brought him to the monastery of Thorney and re-interred him.

Thomas Kendall, the incumbent, gave an 'emotive sermon',[27] the evening before the King's Commissioners were due to arrive and assess the church's wealth.

[27] The townspeople kept vigil that night, and, the following day, rang the church bells, 'an ancient call to rebellion', to gather a crowd.

[28] Having begun marching from Louth, 50,000 supporters converged to camp at Hembleton Hill, the following evening, before they continued to Lincoln to confront the King's Commissioners.

[31] The cross is of the 'ring' or 'wheel head' type, the central design being of Christ crucified, a form more commonly seen today in Ireland.

The two original paintings that together form the panorama hang side-by-side in the Louth Town Council building – the Sessions House – on Eastgate.

The panorama gives a unique and vivid representation of the streets, businesses, homes and people of the town and the landscape as far as the North Sea to the east and northwards to the Humber Estuary and beyond.

[36] ABM Pauls (now ForFarmers [nl]) used to have a large malt kiln, which was the first of its kind built in Europe to an American design out of reinforced concrete in 1949.

[37] At its height the maltings processed 50,000 tonnes of barley per year, with exports handled through the nearby port of Immingham.

The Belmont television and radio mast, once one of the tallest structures in the European Union (until its height was reduced in 2010), is in the nearby village of Donington on Bain, 5 miles (8 km) west of the town.

[43] The town's long retail history is represented by a number of longstanding businesses, including the department store Eve and Ranshaw which closed down on 4 February 2023 after 240 years.

[47] It is also home to The Cheese Shop, which has gained nationwide recognition, including in The Daily Telegraph,[48] The Guardian,[49] and on The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain.

[52] In 2008, a local pressure group, Keep Louth Special, was formed by residents, shoppers and business owners, to lobby against a proposal for a major supermarket on the former cattle market site.

[70] Corinne Drewery, of British pop band Swing Out Sister, grew up in the area and retired English rock drummer Robert Wyatt is a resident.

[74] It cost £12 million and consists of an 8-lane, 25-metre swimming pool and a two-level gym with over 80 pieces of equipment, along with a sports hall and other facilities.

Louth Cricket Club was formed in 1822 and play their home games at the London Road sports pavilion.

In the Wolds to the south-west of the town, around 4 miles (6.4 km) away, is Cadwell Park motor racing circuit between the villages of Scamblesby and Tathwell.