POSTED FROM

LONGWOOD

CO. MEATH · IE

Longwood
Maigh Dearmhaí, Co. Meath

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Maigh Dearmhaí · Co. Meath

A wide-streeted fair-green village in south-west Meath that doubled in size and hung its future on the Royal Canal towpath.

Longwood - Maigh Dearmhaí - is a village in the south-west corner of Meath, about fifteen kilometres south of Trim on the R160 and roughly fifty from Dublin. The first thing you notice is the width of the main street. It is far too broad for the traffic it carries, and that is the giveaway: this was a fair town, laid out for livestock and market crowds, with a triangular Fair Green that once filled with traders and now sits quiet between the old school and the Garda station.

The fair is old. King James I granted Christopher Plunkett a patent to hold fairs here in 1611, one of the earlier such grants in the county, and through the 1800s the markets ran on set dates - the first of February, the first of July, Whit-Tuesday, the twelfth of July, the eleventh of December. The medieval roots run back further still, to the Hospital of the Crutched Friars of St John the Baptist at Newtown Trim, who held the land before the dissolution in 1540.

Then the village changed shape. The 2002 census counted 480 people. By 2016 it was 1,581, and roughly two-thirds of the houses had been built in a single decade - commuter estates filling in around the old street for people working towards Dublin. Longwood is honest about that. It is a residential village now, and its compensation, its reason to stop, is the Royal Canal a couple of kilometres east.

Do not come expecting a tourist village. Come for a walk on the towpath out at Boyne Dock, a look at the 1804 aqueduct, and a pint on the wide street afterwards. That is the village, and on its own terms it works.

Population

~1,581 (2016)

Pubs

4and counting

Walk score

Wide main street end to end in five minutes; canal towpath ten minutes out

Founded

Fair patent granted to Christopher Plunkett by James I, 1611

Coords

53.4544° N, 6.9253° W

01 / 07

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 street

An unusually wide main street built for a market that no longer happens.

Longwood was laid out around fairs - James I granted a fair patent to Christopher Plunkett in 1611, and 19th-century markets ran on fixed dates through the year. The triangular Fair Green and the broad street are what the trading left behind. Four pubs, a post office, grocers, a chipper.

Stories & lore → 02 The canal

Boyne Dock, the towpath, and a Georgian aqueduct over the river.

About two kilometres out at Longwood Harbour (Boyne Dock), a laneway links the village directly to the Royal Canal Greenway. Two hundred metres west the Boyne Aqueduct of 1804 carries the canal over the River Boyne - a stone marvel most people walk straight past.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Stoney's Bar

Wide-street local with weekend music

Traditional pub, Main Street

On the main street and on it a long time - the Lawrence Collection has a photograph of Stoney's Bar in Longwood from over a century ago. Weekend entertainment runs to trad, ballads and singsongs, with a jukebox filling the gaps. The kind of village bar that is the social centre when the green has gone quiet.

P.J. Dargan

Plain village bar

Pub, Longwood

One of the village pubs on or near the main street. A working local rather than anything done up for visitors. Worth knowing the Dargan name turns up around Enfield too, so check you are in the right one.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

A market town laid out in 1611

The fair green and the wide street

The shape of Longwood is the shape of its trade. The patent to hold fairs was granted to Christopher Plunkett by James I in 1611, and the village grew up to serve them - hence the broad main street and the triangular Fair Green, which sits between the old primary school and the Garda station. Through the nineteenth century markets were held on fixed dates across the year: the first of February, the first of July, Whit-Tuesday, the twelfth of July and the eleventh of December. The Edgeworth family held the estate from the late 1600s; in 1952 the green was transferred to the Diocese of Meath. The fairs are long gone, but the street they were laid out for is still the widest thing in the village.

The canal carried over the river on stone

The Boyne Aqueduct, 1804

The Royal Canal does not run through Longwood; it passes a couple of kilometres east. Out at Longwood Harbour - also called Boyne Dock - a laneway from the village meets the towpath, and about two hundred metres west the Boyne Aqueduct carries the canal clean over the River Boyne. It was completed in 1804, a piece of Georgian engineering that most walkers cross without registering what it is. The refurbished lock-keeper's cottage at the harbour is now home to the Ribbontail paddlers canoe club. The Royal Canal Greenway runs 146 km from Dublin to the Shannon; this is one of its quieter Meath stretches.

1841 church, 1921 signatory

St Mary's and a parish that signed a treaty

St Mary's Church of the Assumption on the main street was built in 1841 in a late-Gothic style, with the parochial house following a few years later. For a village this size Longwood has sent some weight out into Irish history: Eamonn Duggan, one of the signatories of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, came from the parish, as did Thomas Allen, who fought and died in the 1916 Rising. Longwood GAA, founded in 1904, has been the steadier thread - a floodlit pitch and a clubhouse bar that does as much community work as the green ever did.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Boyne Dock and the aqueduct Out the laneway to Longwood Harbour (Boyne Dock), about two kilometres, then onto the Royal Canal towpath. Two hundred metres west is the Boyne Aqueduct of 1804. Flat, easy, and the quiet stretch of the Royal Canal Greenway that most people never bother with. Boots after rain - the link path can be muddy.

4-5 km return from villagedistance

1 to 1.5 hourstime

Royal Canal Greenway, Longwood stretch From Boyne Dock the surfaced greenway runs east towards Enfield and west towards the Shannon. Level, traffic-free, good for cycling. Bring your own water and food - there is nothing on the towpath itself, so stock up on the wide street before you set out.

As far as you likedistance

Half a day either waytime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The canal walk is the reason to come, and mild spring days make the towpath out to the aqueduct pleasant.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Best weather for the greenway. The towpath sees cyclists and walkers at weekends; the village itself stays quiet.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Probably the best season. Clear days, good light on the Boyne, and the towpath quieter than summer.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Cold and wet, the link path to the canal turns to mud, and the village is dormant. The pubs keep going; little else does.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Expecting a heritage tourist village

Longwood is a working commuter village - roughly two-thirds of the houses went up in one decade. The wide street and the fair green are genuinely worth a look, but there is no visitor centre, no trail of attractions, no day out in the village itself. The day out is the canal.

Coming without a canal plan

The point of Longwood for a visitor is the towpath at Boyne Dock and the 1804 aqueduct, two kilometres out. Arrive without intending to walk or cycle that and you have a wide street, four pubs and not much else to fill an afternoon.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Longwood is about an hour, west on the M4 then south on the R160 from near Enfield. Fifteen kilometres south of Trim on the same R160. The village is not heavily signposted.

By bus

No frequent direct service. Enfield, on the M4 corridor, is the nearest town with regular bus links; check Local Link for rural connections in this part of south-west Meath.

By train

No station in Longwood. The nearest are Enfield and Hill of Down on the Dublin to Sligo and Dublin to Galway lines, both a short drive north.