Qualla: Athlumney Castle

Athlumney Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Koosdejong, CC BY-SA 4.0. Twice in forty-one years, Athlumney Castle was deliberately burned by the man who owned it, rather than let an enemy take it intact. In 1649, the Maguire who held it set it ablaze ahead of Cromwell's advance on Drogheda. In 1690, after the Battle of the Boyne went the wrong way for the Catholic side, Sir Launcelot Dowdall is said to have done the same before fleeing to France. You can visit the ruin today on Convent Road in Navan, but you have to leave a deposit at the nearby B&B and collect a key.

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Image: Koosdejong | CC BY-SA 4.0

Athlumney Castle: Loman's Ford

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0. Athlumney guards the point where the Leinster Blackwater drains into the Boyne, southeast of Navan. The Irish name means Loman's ford, after Lommán of Trim, the patron saint of the medieval town a few miles upstream. People had been crossing here for a very long time before the N...

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Image: Mike Searle | CC BY-SA 2.0

Athlumney Castle: A Tower and a House

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert French, Public domain. The older part of the castle that stands today is a 15th-century tower house - three storeys of stone with a spiral staircase climbing inside its corner, and holes on the first floor where the wooden beams once supported floorboards. Tower houses like this were built across Irela...

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Image: Robert French | Public domain

Athlumney Castle: The Secret Behind the Wall

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert French, Public domain. Hidden inside the first floor of the fortified house is a secret mural chamber, accessible only by a set of stairs that descend from above. The Irish call this kind of feature a priest hole - a small concealed room where a Catholic priest could be hidden during the centuries when...

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Image: Robert French | Public domain

Athlumney Castle: Burning Their Own House

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert French, Public domain. Two times the lord of Athlumney made the same drastic choice. In 1649, Cromwell's army was marching north from Dublin toward Drogheda, and the Maguire who held Athlumney burned the castle to deny it to the New Model Army. Twelve thousand soldiers needed shelter, supplies, and int...

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Image: Robert French | Public domain

Athlumney Castle: Key from the B and B

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert French, Public domain. Athlumney is a National Monument now, protected by the state and locked. There is no ticket office, no gift shop, no curated path. To visit, you walk to the bed and breakfast on Convent Road, leave a deposit, and they hand you a key. You unlock the gate, step through, and have th...

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Image: Robert French | Public domain