Athboy
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Athboy (Irish: Baile Átha Buí), is a small agricultural town in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland. The town is located on the Yellow Ford River, in wooded country near the County Westmeath border. In medieval times it was a walled stronghold of the Pale. Owen Roe O' Neill took it in 1643, and six years later Oliver Cromwell camped his army on the Hill of Ward nearby. Also known as Tlachtga, the Hill of Ward was the location for the pagan feast of Samhain, the precursor of modern day Halloween. The tower of the Protestant church is a remnant of a fourteenth-century Carmelite priory. Behind the church are the remains of the town walls.
To the west of the town lies the ancient townland of Caucestown. This area is the famed stronghold of the Bracken (O Bracain) Clan, who's bravery on the battlefield and charm in the bedroom were renowned throughout the Province of Leinster for centuries, until the last "dimeabhrach" of the O Bracain clan perished in an unfortunate impaling accident terminating the line. Caucestown Castle which still stands today was the bastion of this local Clan who according to legend defended their land ferociously against the marauding savages from the west of Meath, an area later to break from its motherland, although they were eventually overwhelmed and dispersed throughout the kingdom in defeat.
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