Meath's Hidden Places
Rathbeggan Lakes, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath.
€2.50 gets you in and pay for rides after that.
Recommend Bouncy Park with bouncy castles for extra €5 for the day for young children
Suitable for families with children up 10 or 12.
Zip wire is €7 and other rides are in between with the Playground free.
Has Airsoft on weekend for adults and children over 12.
Nice walks in Heritage Park and around lakes but items are not marked.
You can figure out most of them but it would be great to have signs.
The source of the Tolka River is quite close at the back of the site.
Tayto Park, Kilbrew, Ashbourne, Co.Meath
From M50 take the M2, exit 5 to Ashbourne to the end of the
motorway at roundabout take the first exit onto the N2 signposted Slane. Tayto
Park off to left.
Admission from 13 Adult. Admission covers entry to The Tayto
Park Factory Tour, The Pow Wow Playground, The Lodge Restaurant, The Tayto
Shop, the animal enclosures (which has
over 80 animals. The Eagle Sky Adventure Zone or The Geronimo Thrill Zone are
extra.
It takes half a day to see all the attractions at Tayto
park. There is space at the Lodge and numerous shelter around the park but rainy
days.
Tremblestown Castle Kildalkey Meath
A 15th-century castle of the Barnewell family, overlooking the Tremblestown River, a tributary of the Boyne. A notable feature is the huge two-storey barrel-vaulted hall on the ground floor. Modernised c. 1800, in ruins by 1900.
Lord Trimlestown was a celebrated figure who kept a large eagle chained up by the front door. He spent much of his life abroad where he acquired a skill in medicine. He treated the poor of the district for free and is also noted for treating a fashionable lady for the vapours by getting four assistants to threaten her with rods in a darkened room. He constructed a fine formal garden which contained an aviary of rare birds and a greenhouse full of exotic plants. Early in the 19th century the house was decorated with crenellations and ornamental turrets in the style of the late 16th century. However soon afterwards it was abandoned by the family and fell into ruin.
The Castle of Tremblestown or Trimblestown as it was formerly known is a four storied tower house built in the 1400's by the Barnewell family. In the 1700's a huge three storied mansion was added and further additions such as crenellations were made to the building in the 1800's making it a distinctively decorative abode.
The great house was surrounded by landscaped gardens containing many exotic flora and fauna many acquired by the well travelled 12th Lord. This very fine and ornate estate was abandoned by 1900 and subsequently fell into ruin.
Newgrange
Newgrange was constructed over 5,000 years ago (about 3,200
B.C.), making it older than Stonehenge in England and the Great Pyramid of Giza
in Egypt. Newgrange was built during the Neolithic or New Stone Age by a
farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley. Knowth
and Dowth are similar mounds that together with Newgrange have been designated
a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Located between Slane and Drogheda
