Tullyallen, Tulaigh Álainn, Co. Louth

Tulaigh Álainn · Co. Louth

A small village above the Boyne where the Cistercians, the Williamites and the Townleys all left their stones.

Tullyallen - Tulaigh Álainn, 'beautiful hill' - sits six kilometres north-west of Drogheda above the north bank of the Boyne. A village of perhaps seven hundred and fifty people in the parish core: a supermarket, a pharmacy, a church, a GAA pitch, a single pub. You drive through it in two minutes if nothing's in front of you. You'd miss it entirely except that the three things that frame this loop of the river - Mellifont, the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge, and Townley Hall demesne - are all inside the same parish.

Mellifont is the start of it. St Malachy founded the abbey in 1142 as Ireland's first Cistercian house, on land granted by Donough O'Carroll, King of Airgialla. At its peak it housed a hundred monks and three hundred lay brothers; the order kept the rule of work and silence on the Boyne until Henry VIII shut it in 1539. The lavabo - the octagonal washing-house in the cloister - is the photograph; the chapter house and the crypt are the rooms you stand in. OPW site, ten minutes from the village.

Six kilometres south of the village, on the bend of the Boyne at Oldbridge, William of Orange beat James II on 1 July 1690 (12 July new style). The OPW visitor centre at Oldbridge House interprets the battle in the restored 18th-century house; the battlefield itself is walkable, with cannons and a laser-projection model that gets used hard by the school groups. Behind the village, Townley Hall demesne - Francis Johnston's neoclassical house of 1794, sold by Trinity College Dublin in 2017 - surrounds the woodland walks of King William's Glen, where the Williamite cavalry forded the river.

Don't come for a checklist. Come for an hour at Mellifont with the Boyne running below the cloister, an hour at Oldbridge if 1690 means anything to you, a walk through King William's Glen and Townley Wood, and a pint in McDonnell's afterwards. Tullyallen is a base, not a destination; but you cannot do the Battle, the Abbey, and the demesne without coming through it.

Population

~750 (village core)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

Village to King William's Glen in twenty minutes

Founded

Cistercian parish out of Mellifont (founded 1142) - the village grew at the gate of the abbey lands

Coords

53.7517° N, 6.4169° W

01 / 09

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 abbey

Mellifont, 1142, Ireland's first Cistercian house.

Founded by St Malachy with monks sent from Clairvaux. Suppressed in 1539. The OPW manages the ruins - the octagonal lavabo, the crypt, the chapter house, the surviving Romanesque arcades. Ten minutes from the village by road; on foot through the woods if you have an hour.

Stories & lore → 02 The battle

Oldbridge, 1 July 1690 - William against James.

The decisive battle of the Williamite War. About fifty thousand troops fought across this stretch of the Boyne. Oldbridge House, restored by the OPW, is now the visitor centre. The battlefield walks are open year-round; the centre runs Easter to October.

Stories & lore → 03 The demesne

Townley Hall and King William's Glen.

Francis Johnston's neoclassical house of 1794, set in sixty acres of parkland the Williamite horse rode through on the day of the battle. Trinity College Dublin owned it from 1958 to 2017; sold privately. The woods stay walkable - the trails through King William's Glen are public.

Walks & outings →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

McDonnell's

Local, single bar

Village pub

The village pub. Single bar, locals at the counter, Sky on the screen for the rugby and the GAA. Pints, toasted sandwiches, the kind of room where the regulars know who you're related to before you've sat down. The only pub in Tullyallen - anywhere else means a drive.

Donegan's of Collon

Old, full of whiskey

Pub since 1871, eight minutes by road

Five minutes north on the N2 in Collon village. Pours since 1871, over a hundred Irish whiskeys behind the bar, a yard that took horses in the days when this was the Slane-Derry mail road. Locals from Tullyallen drift up here for a session. Worth the short drive.

The Forge, Collon

Country-village local

Pub & former coaching inn

Also in Collon, on the same N2 stretch. Long-running village pub with food in the lounge. Useful if Donegan's is full or if you want a sit-down rather than a stand-at-the-bar.

Pubs in Drogheda

A note

Tullyallen is a one-pub village. For a proper night out the locals drive ten minutes into Drogheda - McPhail's, Clarke's, Matthews. The taxi back is twelve euro. Plan accordingly.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Battle of the Boyne café (Oldbridge)	Visitor-centre café	€	Inside the OPW visitor centre at Oldbridge House. Soup, sandwiches, traybakes, decent coffee. Open Easter to October during centre hours; the only sit-down lunch within walking distance of the battlefield.
The Forge, Collon	Pub food	€€	Five minutes north in Collon. Lunch and early-evening menu in the lounge. Burgers, fish and chips, a Sunday roast. The reliable lunch stop on this stretch of the N2.
Drogheda for dinner	A note	-	Tullyallen has no evening restaurant. For dinner locals drive ten minutes into Drogheda - Scholars Townhouse on King Street is the proper sit-down, Brú on the river is the riverside option. Plan dinner there, drinks back in McDonnell's after.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Boyne Valley B&Bs	Country guesthouses	Several long-running B&Bs on the country roads between Tullyallen, Mellifont, and Slane - the Donore Road and the Slane Road specifically. Quiet, with gardens, walking distance to the abbey or a short drive to Oldbridge. Search by the road or townland, not the village.
Drogheda hotels	Ten minutes by road	The closest hotels are in Drogheda - Scholars Townhouse, the D Hotel, the Westcourt. All inside fifteen minutes of Tullyallen by car. Use one as a base for the Boyne Valley loop and drive out for the days.
Self-catering near Mellifont	Holiday cottages	A handful of farm-stay and self-catering lets in the parish - Airbnb listings cluster near the abbey and along the Boyne. Useful for a family doing Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne is fifteen minutes the other side of the river) and Mellifont in one trip.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Ireland's first Cistercian abbey, 1142

Mellifont

Malachy of Armagh - the saint and reformer who tried to bring the Irish church into line with continental practice - visited Bernard of Clairvaux in 1140, was given Cistercian monks, and brought them back to the Boyne. The land was granted by Donough O'Carroll, King of Airgialla. Mellifont became the mother house of all later Cistercian foundations in Ireland - thirty-five abbeys descended from it, including Bective, Boyle and Holy Cross. At its medieval height it housed about a hundred choir monks and three hundred lay brothers, and the abbot sat in the Irish Parliament. Henry VIII suppressed it in 1539; the buildings were granted to Edward Moore and remodelled as a fortified house, then knocked. The OPW manages what survives - the octagonal lavabo (the washing-house, c.1200, the photograph everyone takes), the chapter house, the crypt, fragments of the Romanesque cloister arcade. The 12th-century work is the oldest dressed stone in Co. Louth still in place.

1 July 1690 (12 July new style)

The Battle of the Boyne

William III of Orange, with about thirty-six thousand men, faced his father-in-law James II, with about twenty-five thousand, across the Boyne at Oldbridge on 1 July 1690. William's army crossed the river at three places - at Slane upstream, at Oldbridge in the centre, and at Donore - and rolled the Jacobite line up the slope to the south. James lost the day before noon, fled the field, and was on a boat to France within a fortnight. About two thousand men died - relatively light by European standards, but it was the symbolic battle that ended the Stuart claim to the British and Irish thrones. The OPW restored Oldbridge House (a 1740s mansion built on the battlefield) as the visitor centre; the battlefield walks pass through the actual ground the Williamite infantry advanced over. The Williamite cavalry forded the river through King William's Glen on the Tullyallen side, behind the village.

Francis Johnston, 1794

Townley Hall

Townley Hall is one of the finest neoclassical country houses in Ireland - Francis Johnston (architect of the GPO and Dublin Castle's chapel) built it in 1794-1799 for Blayney Townley Balfour. The plan is a perfect square around a top-lit cantilevered spiral stair, the kind of room architects come from England to look at. Trinity College Dublin owned it from 1958 to 2017 as a research and farm estate; it was sold privately in 2017. The house is not open to the public, but the demesne - sixty acres of parkland and woodland surrounding it - has long-standing public walking paths, and the Coillte-managed Townley Hall Wood and King William's Glen trails are part of the Boyne Valley walking network.

The GAA club

Glen Emmets

The village's GAA club is Glen Emmets - football only, fielding teams from under-7s to senior, named after Robert Emmet and the glen the Williamites rode through. The pitch is at the top of the village. The club is the Saturday-morning glue of the parish - if you ask in McDonnell's whether you should go to the abbey or the battlefield first, somebody will work out the answer based on whether there's a match on at three.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

King William's Glen and Townley Wood Through the Coillte-managed woodland on the Townley demesne, following the wooded valley the Williamite cavalry forded on the day of the battle. Mature beech and oak, the Mullagh Rua river running through the bottom, occasional clearings with views down to the Boyne. Way-marked. Good for an hour after lunch at Oldbridge.

5 km loopdistance

1.5 hourstime

Mellifont to Tullyallen Country lane walk between the abbey and the village, mostly hedgerow and field, very little traffic. Combines well with a Mellifont visit if you've parked at the village rather than the abbey car park. Loop back via the Donore Road if you have the legs.

4 km one waydistance

1 hourtime

Boyne Ramparts riverside The riverside path from Drogheda west along the south bank passes under the Boyne Viaduct and ends at Oldbridge. Park in the village, drop down to the river by Oldbridge House, walk back into Drogheda for a coffee, and get a taxi or the Local Link bus back. Flat, paved, the river the whole way.

8 km returndistance

2.5 hourstime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Mellifont reopens for the full OPW season in March, the bluebells in Townley Wood are in around early May, the battlefield walks are dry. The quietest time at all three sites.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Battle anniversary on 1 July brings re-enactors and a busy week at Oldbridge. School holidays add the family crowd. Go early or late in the day; book a table in Drogheda for the evening.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Best of the year. The light on the abbey ruins in October is what the Cistercians built them for. Townley Wood turns. The crowds drop off at all three sites.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Mellifont and Oldbridge run reduced winter hours - check OPW Heritage Ireland before you set out. The walks stay open in any weather; King William's Glen in low December light is the version of the Boyne Valley nobody photographs.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Doing all three sites in one morning

Mellifont, Oldbridge and Townley Wood are each at least an hour. Three is a half-day minimum, four if you walk between them. Pick two and a long lunch, or do the whole loop with an overnight in Drogheda.

Driving down to the riverbank at Oldbridge

Park at the OPW visitor centre and walk down. The lanes get narrow, the car parks fill on summer weekends, and the OPW has put in a proper car park for a reason.

Asking to see Townley Hall the house

It is privately owned. The demesne walks are public; the house is not. Don't approach the front door. The owners keep good relations with walkers because walkers stay on the paths.

Getting there.

By car

Drogheda to Tullyallen is six kilometres on the R168 north-west - ten minutes. From Dublin take the M1 to junction 9 (Donore) for Oldbridge and the battlefield, or junction 10 for the village. Belfast is 1h 30m the other way down the M1.

By bus

No direct service to Tullyallen village. Local Link route 882 (Drogheda-Collon) passes nearby on weekdays. Bus Éireann 100/100X (Dublin-Derry) stops at Collon on the N2, five minutes north. Most visitors come from Drogheda by taxi or rented car.

By train

No train. Drogheda MacBride is the nearest station - half-hourly to Dublin Connolly, Enterprise services to Belfast. Ten minutes by taxi from the station to the village.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is 40 minutes by car straight up the M1 and out at junction 10. Belfast International (BFS) is 1h 30m. Most visitors fly into Dublin and pick up a hire car for the Boyne Valley.

Next on the tour

Co. Louth

Drogheda

Ten minutes south on the R168. The town the Boyne Valley uses for dinner, the train station, and the medieval walking circuit. Scholars Townhouse for a proper meal, McPhail's for a pint.

Co. Louth

Collon

Five minutes north on the N2. Tiny village, but Donegan's pub since 1871 and the gateway to the Cistercian Mellifont parish. The Forge does a useful lunch.

Co. Louth

Baltray

Drop down the Boyne to the river mouth, ten kilometres west, where the golf links runs along the dunes above the strand.

Co. Louth

Tinure

Four kilometres south, a five-road junction with a church and a handful of houses, the M1 close enough to hear.