Drogheda stands on the River Boyne, a short way from where the river meets the Irish Sea, and its position made it a frontier town for centuries. The old walled town, with its steep streets and the St Laurence's Gate, a medieval barbican, was one of the main ports of the Pale, the English-controlled district around Dublin. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell's army stormed the town, and a massacre of the garrison and civilians followed, a memory that still carries bitterness.
A more peaceful relic sits in St Peter's Church, where the preserved head of St Oliver Plunkett, the archbishop executed in London in 1681, is displayed in a shrine. Millmount Fort, a hill overlooking the town, houses a museum and gives views across the rooftops and the river, and the great railway viaduct across the Boyne is a landmark. Just upstream, the Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690, when William of Orange defeated James II, a victory that shaped Irish history.
The Boyne Valley beyond is the real treasure. At Brú na Bóinne, just west of Drogheda, the great passage tomb of Newgrange, built around 3200 BC, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids, has a roof box that lets the winter solstice sun shine down its long passage. Nearby, Knowth and Dowth are similar mounds. Monasterboice, north of town, has a round tower and the tall carved high crosses of the early monastery, and Mellifont Abbey, founded in 1142, was the first Cistercian house in Ireland.
For riders, the lanes of the valley are gentle and green, with old stone bridges, hedgerows and cattle, and the main roads are fast, with the tolled M1 motorway running north-south beside. The surface is mostly fine, though country lanes are narrow, with tractors and farm vehicles. Drogheda has fuel, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. The best months are May to September, though the winter solstice is the day to be at Newgrange, with a lottery for places. Rain is likely at any time, so pack waterproofs.