place

Teltown

Archaeological sites in County MeathHistory of County MeathUse Hiberno-English from November 2019

Teltown (Irish: Tailtin) is a townland in County Meath, Ireland, for the area between Oristown and Donaghpatrick Kells. It was named for the Irish mythological figure or goddess, Tailtiu. The Tailtin Fair was held there in medieval times as a revival of the ancient Aonach Tailteann, and was revived as the Tailteann Games for a period in the twentieth century. While mound structures near Teltown have been asserted in legends in the Book of Invasions to be ancient man-made earthworks 2500 years old, modern archaeological reports of the area suggest they date to at least the Iron Age. Part of one of the mounds in the area called the Knockauns (Irish: na Cnocáin) was partially destroyed by bulldozers for urbanization in 1997. John O'Donovan claimed that loughs near a fort in the area called the Rath Dhubh "have the appearance of being artificial lakes and may have been used when the Olympic Games of Tailteann were celebrated by the Irish". He also mentions a tradition that the shade of Laogaire, the King of Tara, was imprisoned by Saint Patrick until Judgement Day to the east of Rath Dhubh in the Dubhloch.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Teltown (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.700264 ° E -6.766548 °
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Address

Bóthar Tailteann

Teltown Road
C15 P297 (Donaghpatrick ED)
Ireland
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Nearby Places

Durhamstown Castle
Durhamstown Castle

Durhamstown Castle is a 600-year-old towerhouse in the townland of Durhamstown of the civil parish of Ardbraccan which is in the barony (Ireland) of Lower Navan, in County Meath, Ireland. It has been inhabited continuously since 1420. It is named after a Mr. Dorream (or Mr. Dorram), whos family lived there in 1511, and has been converted into a guest house and restaurant.Although the precise origins of the building are unknown, the existing castle is believed to date from the early 15th century. The building is of four storeys and the ground floor has four vaulted chambers with inserted windows. A square tower with a pointed door which opens to a spiral staircase can be found at its east wall. There are three tall chimneys clustering at the north end of the nave. There is believed to have originally been another storey which was knocked down as a result of a fire. A 19th century single storey wing has been added to the north of the old house. In the 16th century the building was owned by The 1st Earl of Essex, Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland.In the 17th century Sir Roger Jones-Lord Ranallagh lived there, whose son Arthur, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was involved in a scandal whereby the entire Irish Exchequer was diverted to pay for the mistresses of Charles II. During the 18th century its occupants were Thompsons and during the 19th the Roberts Family. It is currently owned by Dave and Sue Prickett, who bought it in 1996 and run it as a guest house and restaurant. It is one of the oldest continually resided-in buildings in Ireland.