County Louth Guide (Lú)
“The Wee County” - in the province of Leinster. County town: Dundalk.
Ireland’s smallest county, steeped in the legends of Cú Chulainn.
Ireland’s smallest county, affectionately the “Wee County”, Louth squeezes a lot onto the east coast between Dublin and the border. It’s steeped in the myths of Cú Chulainn, dotted with monastic ruins like Monasterboice and Mellifont, and bookended by two spirited towns, Drogheda and Dundalk, with the lovely Cooley Peninsula in between.
They call it the Wee County, but Louth looms enormous in Irish myth. Ireland's smallest county is the setting for much of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the great epic in which the boy-warrior Cú Chulainn single-handedly defended the Gap of the North against the armies of Queen Medb. The Cooley Peninsula, where the saga's famous brown bull grazed, is still one of the east coast's most dramatic landscapes, its mountains falling to Carlingford Lough. Even the county's name is mythic - it comes from the village of Louth, itself named for Lugh, the shining god of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
History kept returning to this narrow corridor between Dublin and Ulster. Mellifont, Ireland's first Cistercian abbey, rose here in 1142, and the high crosses of Monasterboice are among the finest carved stones of early Christian Europe. Drogheda endured Cromwell's most notorious siege and today guards the preserved head of St Oliver Plunkett; Dundalk grew into a proud industrial and brewing town. A border county with a strong GAA and soccer culture, modern Louth thrives along the M1 corridor, while Carlingford's medieval lanes and oyster festivals make it one of Ireland's most atmospheric small towns.
Cities, towns and villages in Louth
- Dundalk - The county town, midway between Dublin and Belfast, an industrial and brewing centre long associated with Cú Chulainn, Harp Lager and Dundalk FC.
- Drogheda - One of Ireland's largest towns, a historic walled port on the Boyne that holds the preserved head of St Oliver Plunkett in St Peter's Church.
- Ardee - A market town whose name, Áth Fhirdia, recalls the ford where Cú Chulainn slew his friend Ferdia in the Táin; two medieval castles still stand on its main street.
- Carlingford - A beautifully preserved medieval town beneath Slieve Foye, famous for King John's Castle, its narrow lanes and its annual Oyster Festival.
- Blackrock - A seaside village on Dundalk Bay with a Victorian promenade, long a favourite bathing spot for the town.
- Clogherhead - A working fishing port and Blue Flag beach village, famous for its prawns and its dramatic headland.
- Termonfeckin - A pretty village near the coast, once a summer seat of the Archbishops of Armagh and home to a fine 15th-century tower house.
- Dunleer - A growing mid-Louth town on the old Dublin to Belfast road with an early Christian monastic heritage.
- Omeath - A village on Carlingford Lough that remained Irish-speaking into the early 20th century, the last Gaeltacht area in Leinster.
- Louth - The tiny village that gives the county its name, associated with St Mochta, a disciple of St Patrick, whose stone oratory still stands.
Famous people from Louth
- The Corrs - The Dundalk family band of Andrea, Sharon, Caroline and Jim, who sold tens of millions of albums worldwide blending pop with traditional Irish music.
- Thomas D'Arcy McGee - Carlingford-born journalist and politician who became a Father of Canadian Confederation and was assassinated in Ottawa in 1868.
- Evanna Lynch - Actress from Termonfeckin who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films.
- Steve Staunton - Dundalk-born defender who won 102 caps for the Republic of Ireland, played in two World Cups and later managed the national team.
- Gary Kelly - Drogheda native who spent his entire professional career at Leeds United, making over 500 appearances and playing for Ireland at two World Cups.
- Peter Rice - Dundalk-raised structural engineer behind the Sydney Opera House roof, the Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd's building, regarded as one of the greatest engineers of the 20th century.
- Nano Reid - Drogheda-born painter, one of Ireland's leading 20th-century modernist artists, who twice represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale.
- St Brigid - Ireland's foremost female saint, traditionally said to have been born at Faughart near Dundalk, where her shrine remains a place of pilgrimage.
Did you know?
- Louth is the smallest county in Ireland at roughly 826 square kilometres, earning it the nickname 'the Wee County'.
- Mellifont Abbey, founded in 1142, was the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland and became the model for dozens of daughter houses across the country.
- Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice, standing about 5.5 metres tall, is widely considered the finest high cross in all of Ireland.
- The preserved head of St Oliver Plunkett, executed at Tyburn in 1681 and canonised in 1975, is displayed in a shrine in St Peter's Church, Drogheda.
- Louth is one of the only Irish counties named after a village - the tiny settlement of Louth, whose name derives from Lugh, the ancient Celtic god of light.
- St Laurence's Gate in Drogheda is regarded as one of the finest surviving barbican gates in Europe, a relic of the town's medieval walls.
- The capstone of the Proleek Dolmen near Dundalk weighs an estimated 35 tonnes and has balanced on its three supporting stones for some 5,000 years.
- Omeath on the Cooley Peninsula was the last Irish-speaking district in Leinster, with native speakers surviving there into the 1920s.