The Hill of Slane s on the tower to the left are now unrecognizable. s, up to at least 1830. To the north of the village rises the Hill of Slane, which stands above the surroundings. There are a number of historic sites located around the top of the hill. In the
Metrical Dindshenchas, a collection of
bardic verse, the ancient
Fir Bolg king
Sláine mac Dela was said to have been buried here, in the place that had been called
Druim Fuar that came to be known in his memory
Dumha Sláine. There is an artificial mound on the western end of the hilltop. 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.
Muirchu moccu Machtheni, in his highly mythologised seventh-century Life of Patrick, says that
Saint Patrick lit a
Paschal fire on this hilltop in A.D. 433 in defiance of the
High King Laoire who forbid any other fires while a festival fire was burning on the
Hill of Tara. Historians and archaeologists agree that Muirchu has moved to Slane a fire lit elsewhere; The Hill of Slane can be seen from the Hill of Tara which is about away. According to Muirchu, Logaire was so impressed by Patrick's devotion that, despite his defiance (or perhaps because of it), he let him continue his missionary work in Ireland. It is somewhat more certain that Patrick appointed a bishop of Slane,
Saint Erc. The Hill of Slane remained a centre of religion and learning for many centuries after Saint Patrick. The
Annals of the Four Masters record that in A.D. 948 "The belfry of Slaine [an
Irish round tower] was burned by the foreigners [Vikings], with its full of relics and distinguished persons, together with Caeineachair, Lector of Slaine, and the crozier of the patron saint, and a bell which was the best of bells." Nothing remains of the tower today, although the ruins of a
friary church and college can be seen on the top of the hill. It is known that Slane Friary was restored in 1512. The ruins include a high early
gothic tower. The friary was abandoned in 1723. tree on the Hill of Slane. 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. This was the seat of the Flemings of Slane,
barons of Slane. The Flemings moved to a castle on the left bank of the River Boyne, the current location of
Slane Castle. The Flemings were lords of Slane from the twelfth century until the seventeenth century, when the
Conyngham family replaced them as lords of Slane during the
Williamite Confiscations.
Slane Castle Slane Castle stands on the river about upstream from the centre of the village. There is an ancient
well in the grounds of the castle near the river. In
Irish mythology (specifically the account found in the
Cath Maigh Tuireadh), the well was blessed by
Dian Cecht so that the
Tuatha Dé Danann could bathe in it and be healed, allegedly, healing all wounds but decapitation. However upon the arrival of
Christianity in Ireland, and the policy of
Christian reinterpretation for pagan sites, the well is now known as ''
Our lady's well''.
Legion of Mary–led pilgrimages to the site are hosted every August. The castle grounds have been the site of
large rock concerts since 1981. Also within the grounds of Slane Castle (
demesne) are the ruins of
St. Erc's Hermitage. This consists of a late 15 to 16th century
chapel, an earlier dwelling, Not to be confused with the similarly named Saint Patrick's
Church of Ireland, on main street, built 1797 "
M.DCC.XCVII." In 2009 "Slane Castle Whiskey", began to be bottled and labelled, a
blended whiskey, it was created by Noel Sweeney and made at the
Cooley mountain distillery outside
Dundalk. Following a change in ownership, the Cooley distillery ceased further collaboration. The whiskey that is intended to be produced in the distillery, carries the label, "SLANE Irish Whiskey", with the placename of "Slane", since 2018, now a registered trademark, controversially held by the owner of "Slane Castle Irish Whiskey Limited".
Slane Mill In the 1760s
Boyne Navigation opened between Slane and
Oldbridge, approximately down river. This is a series of
canals which made the River Boyne navigable to small boats from Slane to the port in Drogheda. A canal which is part of the navigation runs parallel to the river on the south bank near Slane.
David Jebb was the engineer in charge of the construction. Once the navigation was opened as far as Slane, Jebb himself built a
flour mill at Slane. Slane Mill stands on the north bank of the River Boyne beside the N2 bridge. The mill is a five-storey cut-stone building. When the mill was completed in 1766, it was the largest flour mill in Ireland. By channelling the water of the Boyne through the
weir that passes under the five-storey building, the
water-powered mill in the building ground flour until the 1870s, at which point
roller mills replaced
grindstones. The mill building was later converted to processing Irish
scutch flax for clothing. With competition in the textile industry, the mill began to transition from
primary sector to more
secondary finished goods, and to that end, the workforce largely moved to the "new mill" in the early-mid-20th century, which could house the longer lines of
power looms. A concrete walkway cutting through the forest that separates the two mills was similarly built to allow a quicker exchange of personnel. The now increasingly idle water-powered mill in what became the "old mill", was converted into a dedicated
low head hydro power run-of-the-river hydroelectricity generating station. Its operators received a cheque from the
ESB for a number of decades until it fell into disrepair. 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.
Slane Bridge and
National Volunteers member,
Francis Ledwidge, who was to serve and die in
World War I. . 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. The N2 crosses the River Boyne south of the village. The road descends a steep hill from the village and makes an almost ninety-degree turn onto the 14th-century bridge. As you climb the hill towards Slane village the wall on the right-hand side of the road has a number of small white crosses, each representing a death on this stretch of road. 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. These include separate traffic signals for heavy goods vehicles and cars, as well as a
30km/h speed limit throughout the village. Since their installation, fatal accidents have ceased. It was hoped that the opening of the
M1 motorway would divert a lot of the heavy traffic from the village but there is evidence that many heavy goods vehicles still use the N2 (and thus Slane bridge) to avoid paying the
toll on the
M1 bridge. 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 bridge has not always been the source of tragedy, the evening of 18 May 1969 is fondly remembered by many of the community when a truck laden with
Bushmills and Cream of Barley Whiskey was travelling from
County Antrim to Dublin when its brakes failed coming down the hill and it rolled over the bridge wall into the river some 3 meters or so below, the driver survived and was brought to Hospital but the entire loot of liquor was strewn across the river bottom. Most of the town of Slane were quick on the scene, vans and truck were seen spiriting away from the wreck of the truck in the dead of night. Several prosecutions followed, but the actual quantity of whiskey taken away is still known only to the management of Bushmills and perhaps to the Insurance Company that followed up the claim. 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. ==Near Slane==