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DROGHEDA

CO. LOUTH · IE

Drogheda
Droichead Átha

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 02 / 06

Droichead Átha · Co. Louth

A walled medieval port on the Boyne with the head of a saint in the church on West Street.

Drogheda is the biggest town in Co. Louth and, on the population numbers, the largest in the State outside the five cities. Forty-four thousand people, the River Boyne cutting straight through the middle, and a layer-cake of history that goes from a Norman walled town to a 17th-century massacre to a 19th-century railway viaduct to a 21st-century commuter belt feeding the M1 into Dublin. Most of it is still here. You walk past it on your way to the chemist.

It was founded as two towns. Drogheda-in-Meath on the south bank, Drogheda-in-Oriel on the north — separately chartered, separately walled, periodically fighting each other across the river — until Henry IV ordered them united in 1412. The walls went up in the 13th century, three and a half kilometres of stone enclosing 113 acres, and St Laurence's Gate is the best-preserved medieval town gate left in Ireland. The Tholsel on West Street is the 1770 replacement for the medieval one. Magdalene Tower at the top of the hill is what's left of the 14th-century Dominican friary. The kind of town where 'medieval' is not a decorating choice.

Don't come for a checklist. Come for an hour walking the south bank from St Laurence's Gate up to Millmount Fort with the Boyne underneath you, twenty minutes in St Peter's at the shrine of Oliver Plunkett, a pint in McPhail's beer garden if the sun is out or in Clarke's at the bar if it isn't, and dinner at Scholars Townhouse on King Street. The town does not put on a show. It assumes you've read up.

Drogheda is also the gateway to the Boyne Valley. Newgrange and Knowth are fifteen minutes west, the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge is six kilometres up the river, Mellifont and Monasterboice are inland. Use the town as a base. The drive between sites is shorter from here than from anywhere else, and you eat better in the evening.

Population

44,135 (2022)

Pubs

30and counting

Walk score

Laurence Gate to Millmount in twenty minutes, with the bridge in between

Founded

Walled town c.1180s; charter of Drogheda-in-Meath 1194 (Walter de Lacy); united 1412

Coords

53.7189° N, 6.3478° W

01 / 10

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The siege

11 September 1649 — Cromwell took the town in a day.

The Parliamentarian army stormed the south wall, killed Sir Arthur Aston with his own wooden leg, and put much of the garrison and an unknown number of civilians to the sword. The men who held out in St Peter's steeple were burned in it. Drogheda became the byword for the conquest that followed.

Stories & lore → 02 The head

St Oliver Plunkett, in a glass case on West Street.

Plunkett — Archbishop of Armagh, hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681 for 'promoting the Romish faith' — was canonised in 1975. His head is in St Peter's Roman Catholic Church on West Street, in a brass and glass shrine. Free entry. The queue moves quickly.

Stories & lore → 03 The viaduct

Sir John Macneill, 1855, ninety feet above the Boyne.

The Boyne Viaduct carries the Dublin–Belfast main line over the river on a lattice girder span of 270 feet between twelve stone arches south and three north. When it opened in 1855 it was the longest continuous lattice girder in the world. Every train you take to Belfast crosses it.

Walks & outings →

02 / 10

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

McPhail's

Snug at the front, garden at the back

Pub & beer garden, Laurence Street

Wonderful little snug at the front, an alley running down the side, a beer garden out the back that the whole town squeezes into when the sun comes out. The pints are pulled properly, the staff have been there years, and the back garden does what most Drogheda pubs cannot — get you outside without being on a footpath.

Clarke's Bar

Old wood, locals at the bar

Traditional pub, since 1900

On Peter Street. Over a century of the same wooden bar, original snugs, the kind of room where the lights are kept low and the regulars don't move when a stranger sits down. Trad on a Sunday afternoon. The pint of stout is what people travel in for.

Peter Matthews ('Matthews')

Town local, tiled front

Pub, since the 19th century

Number 9 Laurence Street. Family-run for generations, late-Victorian tiled façade, the lounge that opens late for the music sessions. Locals call it Matthews. Good pint. Good crowd at the weekend.

Sarsfield's

Trad and ballads

Pub & music

Shop Street. A Drogheda institution for live music — trad, ballad sessions, the odd singer-songwriter on a Thursday. The front bar is loud on a match night and quiet on a Tuesday. Both versions work.

The Railway Tavern

Station-side, busy

Pub since the 1800s

Up the hill towards the train station. A working-day pub for commuters and a music pub at weekends. The room is unfussy, the pint is reliable, the Saturday-night crowd carries the place.

03 / 10

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Scholars Townhouse Hotel restaurant	Hotel restaurant, modern Irish	€€€	King Street. The best dinner in town — opulent Victorian dining room, the kitchen bakes its own bread, makes its own ice creams, does a tasting menu and an à la carte. Two AA Rosettes. Book Friday and Saturday.
Stockwell Artisan Foods	Café & deli	€€	On Stockwell Street. Gwen and Orlaigh run a café and deli that lean local, organic and fairtrade. Soup, sandwiches, the cake counter that the regulars stop in for at eleven. The room is the calmest place to sit in the town centre.
Ariosa Coffee	Coffee roaster & café	€	Single-origin coffee roasted in town. The flat white is the reason most Drogheda professionals are awake. The pastries are bought in but well chosen. Useful before a Boyne Valley day.
Brú Bar & Bistro	Bistro on the river	€€	Right on the Boyne with a riverside terrace. Pub menu in the daytime, bistro plates in the evening, the terrace doing about half the work in summer. The view of the bridge and the viaduct is its own argument.
The Pheasant Bar & Grill	Gastropub	€€	Off the main drag. Steaks and pub classics done seriously. Useful when Scholars is full and you still want a sit-down dinner with a wine list.

04 / 10

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Scholars Townhouse Hotel	Boutique hotel, 17 rooms	King Street. The proper stay in Drogheda — Victorian townhouse, big rooms, the dining room is the best in town. Walking distance to St Peter's, the Tholsel and Laurence Gate. Book a front room for the morning light.
The D Hotel	Riverside hotel	On the south bank by the Marsh Road. Modern, big, the rooms over the Boyne are the ones to ask for. Convenient for the train station and the M1. Functional rather than period, but the river view earns the supplement.
Westcourt Hotel	Three-star town-centre hotel, 27 rooms	West Street. Central, walking distance to everything in the medieval grid, useful for a one-night stop on the Boyne Valley loop. Unfussy rooms, full Irish in the morning, on-street life right outside the door.
B&Bs around Bryanstown and Termonfeckin Road	Guesthouses, 5–10 minutes out	A handful of long-running B&Bs on the Termonfeckin Road and around Bryanstown. Quieter than the centre, useful with a car, and twenty euro cheaper than the hotels in summer. Search by the road, not the town.

05 / 10

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

11 September 1649

Cromwell's siege

Oliver Cromwell arrived outside Drogheda on 3 September 1649 with twelve thousand men and a battery of siege guns. Sir Arthur Aston commanded a garrison of about 3,100, mostly Irish Catholics and English Royalists, behind walls that had stood since the 13th century. Cromwell offered terms; Aston refused. After a week's bombardment the south wall was breached on the evening of 11 September. The town fell in hours. Aston was beaten to death with his own wooden leg, said to be full of gold. The garrison was put to the sword; civilians, monks, and the men who barricaded into St Peter's steeple all died, the steeple set alight to flush them out. The death-toll estimates vary — between two and four thousand — but the political fact is clear: 'the curse of Cromwell upon you' became a Hiberno-English idiom for a reason. The breach in the wall is gone. The memory hasn't.

Hanged at Tyburn, 1 July 1681

The head of Oliver Plunkett

Oliver Plunkett, born 1625 in Loughcrew, Co. Meath, was Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. Convicted on perjured evidence at the height of the Popish Plot, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn — the last Catholic martyr to die at Tyburn. The body was eventually translated; the head went via Rome to Drogheda in 1921. It sits today in St Peter's Roman Catholic Church on West Street, in a brass and glass shrine designed by Richard King. Plunkett was canonised by Paul VI on 12 October 1975 — the first new Irish saint in nearly seven hundred years. Free entry to the shrine; a candle if you want one.

The last barbican

St Laurence Gate

The east gate of the medieval town walls is the best-preserved medieval town gate in Ireland — two four-storey circular towers connected by a curtain wall and an arch, originally fronting the actual gate behind it. Built in the 13th century. Renamed in the 14th after the leper hospital of St Laurence on the road outside. The whole 113-acre walled town used to look like this; now this is the only fragment that gives you the scale. Stand under the arch and look up. The portcullis groove is still there.

1855, the bridge that joined the line

The viaduct

Until the Boyne Viaduct opened in 1855, the Dublin and Drogheda Railway terminated south of the river and the Dublin and Belfast Junction line started north of it. Passengers walked across the town. Sir John Macneill — Trinity College's first Professor of Engineering, born in this county — designed the lattice girder bridge that closed the gap. Twelve stone arches on the south side, three on the north, a 270-foot main span carrying the rails ninety feet over the Boyne. The original wrought-iron lattice was replaced with steel in 1932, but the masonry is the masonry of 1855. It has carried every Belfast–Dublin train ever run.

United Park, 1919 onwards

Drogheda United

The town's League of Ireland club — founded 1919, refounded by amalgamation in 1975 — plays at Weavers Park (rebadged 'Sullivan & Lambe Park' for sponsorship) on the north side. FAI Cup winners 2005, 2023, 2024. Premier Division champions 2007. Match night brings about three thousand into the ground; the pubs on Trinity Street fill before kick-off and empty in fifteen minutes after the final whistle. Black-and-blue striped shirts; sing 'The Drogs.'

06 / 10

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Medieval Drogheda walking trail Start at St Laurence's Gate, down Laurence Street to the Tholsel, west to St Peter's RC for the shrine, back via West Street to Magdalene Tower at the top of the hill. Cross the bridge, climb to Millmount Fort and the museum. Plaques are good. The town heritage centre at Millmount sells a printed trail leaflet.

3 km loopdistance

1.5 hourstime

Boyne Ramparts walk Out along the south bank of the Boyne from the centre, past the railway viaduct, towards Oldbridge and the Battle of the Boyne site. Flat, paved, riverside, good for a morning. The viaduct from below is the photograph. Continue to Oldbridge if you have the legs and a coffee at the visitor centre at the end.

7 km returndistance

2 hourstime

Beaulieu and the estuary From the east of the town along the Mornington Road towards Beaulieu House and the Boyne estuary. Country lane, mostly quiet, the estuary widening as you walk. Beaulieu House is private but opens for guided tours June–early September; ring ahead. Carry on to the lighthouses at Mornington if the day allows.

6 km returndistance

2 hourstime

07 / 10

Tours, if you want one.

The ones below are bookable through our partners — pick one that suits, or skip the lot and just turn up.

via Viator

Dublin To Drogheda Private Luxury Car Transfer

private tours

Arriving at Dublin Airport, Or travelling from Dublin City, Your professional private Chauffeur will meet you at your arrivals terminal hall and transpo...

0-0 hours From €210

See tour →

We earn a small commission when you book through our tour pages. It costs you nothing extra and keeps the village hubs free. All Co. Louth tours →

08 / 10

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Boyne Valley sites are open and uncrowded, the Ramparts walk is dry, and the town gardens at Beaulieu come on in May. Restaurants take bookings without a fight.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings on the river, the Drogheda Arts Festival in May/June, Beaulieu House open for tours, the Boyne Valley loop at its best. Hotels in town fill on summer Saturdays — book ahead, and avoid weekends with home Drogheda United matches if you want a quiet drink.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

Best of the year. Mellifont and Monasterboice in the September light are the version that earns the trip, and the town gets back to itself once the schools go back. The Drogheda Traditional Music Weekend lands in October.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Boyne Valley OPW sites cut their hours; the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre runs reduced winter opening. The shrine at St Peter's, the pubs, Scholars and the riverside walks stay open in any weather. The Christmas lights on West Street are good.

◐ Mind yourself

09 / 10

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Driving through on the M1 without coming off

Most travellers from Dublin to Belfast do this and never see the town. The M1 bypasses the river crossing entirely. Take junction 9 or 10 and come into the centre. You have just bypassed the head of a saint and the only intact medieval town gate in Ireland.

Doing Newgrange and the town in the same morning

Brú na Bóinne is at least three hours including the visitor centre, the bus and the chamber. Drogheda is two hours minimum if you walk it properly. Pick one for the morning, lunch in town, the other in the afternoon.

Eastern Seaboard

It was the restaurant that put Drogheda on the food map for a decade. It closed in October 2019. Don't ask the taxi driver — he's tired of telling people. Eat at Scholars instead.

Match-day parking on the north side

When Drogheda United are at home, the streets around Weavers Park gridlock for two hours. Park south of the river or come by train. The walk over the bridge is part of the evening anyway.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Drogheda is 50 minutes on the M1, junction 9 (Donore) for Newgrange and Boyne Valley, junction 10 for the town centre. Belfast is 1h 15m on the same motorway. The M1 toll plaza at Drogheda is the only one between the two cities.

By bus

Bus Éireann 100/100X (Dublin–Belfast and Dublin–Derry) and Matthews coaches both stop in Drogheda many times a day — about an hour from Dublin Busáras. Local Link runs to Termonfeckin, Baltray, Collon and the surrounding villages.

By train

Drogheda is on the Dublin–Belfast Enterprise line and the Dublin commuter line. Half-hourly to Connolly (45 minutes), Enterprise services to Belfast. The MacBride station is on the north bank, ten minutes walk from the centre.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is 35 minutes by car straight down the M1. Belfast International (BFS) is 1h 15m. The Dublin–Belfast Aircoach passes Drogheda exit on the M1.