Fairyhouse

County Meath


The National Hunt season has its yearly climax with the Grand National, held here on Easter Monday. The course is 25km north of Dublin; special buses run from Busáras.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby County Meath attractions

1. Tayto Park

4.18 MILES

At Ireland’s only permanent theme park you can ride Europe's largest wooden inverted roller coaster, Cú Chulainn. Just 45 minutes from Dublin city center,…

2. Dunsany Castle

7.27 MILES

You can see how the other 1% lives at Dunsany Castle, 5km south of Tara on the Dunshaughlin–Kilmessan road. The residence of the lords of Dunsany, it's…

3. Maynooth Castle

8.86 MILES

At the west end of the town centre you can see the ruined gatehouse, keep and great hall of this 13th-century castle, once home to the Fitzgerald family…

4. Enclosure of King Laoghaire

8.86 MILES

South of Tara's Royal Enclosure is this large but worn ring fort where the king, a contemporary of St Patrick, is said to be buried standing upright and…

5. Royal Enclosure

8.89 MILES

South of Tara's church, the Royal Enclosure is a large oval Iron Age hill fort, 315m in diameter and surrounded by a bank and ditch cut through solid rock…

6. Tara Visitor Centre

8.9 MILES

A former Protestant church (with a window by acclaimed stained-glass artist the late Evie Hone) is home to Tara's visitor centre, which screens a 20…

7. Rath of the Synods

8.91 MILES

Tara's Protestant church grounds and graveyard spill onto the remains of this triple-ringed fort where some of St Patrick's early synods (meetings)…

8. St Patrick's College

9.02 MILES

Part of NUI Maynooth, and turning out Catholic priests since 1795, St Patrick's College & Seminary is Ireland's second-oldest university (after Trinity…