Slane

Slane (Irish: Baile Shláine, meaning 'Town of Sláine mac Dela')[2] is a village in County Meath, in Ireland.

Habitation at the Hill of Slane settlement and upon the introduction of Christianity is attested in the Annals of Inisfallen and hagiography of Saint Patrick.

The most relatively undisturbed structure, built under the feudal lordship of this family, is a motte and bailey, which is in close proximity to the Hill of Slane settlement.

The two main streets in the village feature 18th-century grey limestone buildings with slate roofs, oriel windows and archways.

In 2007 Meath County Council proposed that both Slane village and the mill be recognised as Architectural Conservation Areas and protected accordingly.

[8] The earliest recorded inter-county match of caid, equivalent to modern Gaelic football, in the entirety of Ireland; was one between Louth and Meath, in the fields of Slane, in 1712, about which the poet Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta wrote a poem of 88 verses beginning "Ba haigeanta".

Teams play their home games in Toddy Harding Park, located 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of the village.

The hill may have been chosen as the site of a Christian abbey due to the presence of an existing Tuatha Dé Danann shrine, the remains of which may be two standing stones in the burial yard.

[16] Approximately 150 meters west of the college and friary church, hidden by trees, lay the steeply inclined remains of a twelfth-century Norman motte and bailey, built by Richard Fleming in the 1170s.

A portion of a celtic cross carving, that was also initially part of St. Erc's Hermitage is now housed in an Iron frame beside the altar within Saint Patrick's Church on Chapel street.

[22] Resulting in the financing and construction by Brown Forman of "Slane Castle Distillery", completed in 2017, it is owned and operated by Henry and Alex Conyngham.

By the late 20th century, both mills shared the fate of most others in the textile industry of western Europe; repeated downsizing brought about by a failure to innovate a desirable and unique design signature, competition from businesses with greater supply-chain vertical integration, the need to upgrade to more modern air-jet looms and cheaper labour in the far East have all conspired to ensure the "new mill" likewise has all but left the textile industry that was once the primary employer in Slane.

Most of the crashes have involved heavy goods vehicles which are not able to slow down sufficiently to make the sharp bend after picking up speed on the hill.

Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority have installed a number of traffic calming measures over the years in an attempt to make the bend onto the bridge safer.

[30][32] Planning permission for a 3.5 km bypass of Slane was refused by An Bord Pleanála in 2012, due to heritage concerns regarding the nearby Newgrange monument.

An Bord Pleanála said that due to the proposed road being in the "viewshed" of the Newgrange UNESCO site, approval would only be considered if no alternative route was possible.

The following day five Irish Divers, Brian Cusack, Sean Sheridan, Joe Murray, Fergus McKenna and Sean Donohoe arrived and while the local people of Slane were still dredging for bottles they collected 408 bottles in total, the local butcher in Slane at the time was apparently still drinking Bushmills Whiskey four years later.

The Brú na Bóinne complex of Neolithic chamber tombs lies on the River Boyne, 5 kilometres (3 mi) downstream from the village.

[38] In common with the town of Drogheda and the area around the adjacent limestone quarry of Platin, a number of now overgrown lime kilns dot the hills of Slane, with the most visible being behind the only service station remaining in the village and to the rear of Ledwidge Cottage.

Rosnaree Mill and its accompanying Sheela na Gig, a stone carving which has been taken indoors to prevent further weathering, can be viewed upon request to the owner at George's Patisseries on Chapel Street, Slane.

[40] Collins Coaches operate a route linking Slane to Dublin, Collon, Ardee and Carrickmacross with one journey each way to/from Ballybay.

This area includes other towns larger but not older than Slane in the modern day, such as Duleek, Stamullen and the portions of the environs of Drogheda which are in County Meath.

[44] The controversy, around the trademarking includes that this application was designed to cast a very wide net, over a range of goods and services, not limited to alcohol, resulting in the trademark-holders controlling an array of other categories.

One of the four private Georgian houses at the centre of the village.
Ruins on the hill of Slane, facing East.
The ruins on the hill of Slane as it appeared in 1830. Picturesque views of the Antiquities of Ireland. Drawn on stone by J. D. Harding, from the sketches of R. O'C. Newenham. Since 1830, the battlements on the tower to the left are now unrecognizable.
Ruins on the Hill of Slane in 2008, facing North West. The tower on the top right, was capped with battlements , up to at least 1830.
The cemetery and Chilean pine tree on the Hill of Slane.
Slane Castle.
The "Old mill" resides next to 20th-century adjacent factory buildings that were built before the rate of the textile industry at the site, outgrew the capacity of the area. It is referred to as the "old mill" to distinguish it from the "new mill" or "factory" that was built slightly uphill from this site, due to the area's land constraints. The main mill building "displays a level of carved detail that is unusual for an industrial building and more typically found in country houses of the period". [ 27 ]
The hill and dangerous bend approaching Slane bridge.
Memorial plaque on Slane bridge commemorating poet, Irish and National Volunteers member, Francis Ledwidge , who was to serve and die in World War I .
Signposts showing the entry to Slane, as well as the 30km/h speed limit
Road signposts on the N2 as northbound traffic enters Slane from Ashbourne . A 30 km/h speed limit has been adopted in Slane since 2009 in an effort to prevent further collisions. The signs are located nearly a kilometre from the notorious black spot.
Ledwidge Cottage Museum, Slane, County Meath
where Francis Ledwidge lived and grew up as a young poet.