There were once many 'Celtic Christian' monasteries in County Louth. Monasterboice, with its round tower and magnificent high crosses, is one of the finest examples of their sort and has been selected by the Irish government to form part of a serial nomination ("Early Medieval Monastic Sites") to become a World Heritage Site (along with Glendalough, Clonmacnois and others). Many of the other sites are also well worth a visit, including Dromin, Dromiskin and Louth. Faughart hill, site of another such monastery, is the reputed birthplace of Saint Brigid 'of Kildare', whose feast is still celebrated on 1st February each year www.bratbhride.com. Several of these ancient sites also host ruined medieval churches and graveyards. Anyone considering doing maintenance or conservation or even recording work in any of these old graveyards is strongly recommended to check out the new guidelines recently published by the Heritage Council. Click on this link to go to the document on the Heritage Council website graveyard guidelines.
Louth County Council adopted a Conservation Study produced for Monasterboice in 2009, produced jointly with the Office of Public Works and the National Monuments Service of the DEHLG.
Many of these monastic sites have souterrains, ancient 'fall-out shelters' or 'panic-rooms'. Louth has one of the highest concentrations of these in Ireland, especially in the area between the Fane and Castletown rivers. People in this area must have lived under constant threat of attack. One of these monuments, at Donaghmore, is a National Monument and can be visited, with care!
