Athboy, County Meath, Ireland 

Athboy, County Meath, Ireland
Athboy is a small agricultural town located in County Meath. The town is located on the Yellow Ford River, in wooded country near the County Westmeath border.
The town of Athboy began sometime during the sixth century A.D. as a settlement at the river crossing known as the Yellow Ford. The importance of the crossing meant that an established road network converging on the Yellow Ford had existed from early times. The town developed along these roadways. The earliest inhabitants of Athboy were Druids who had settlements at the nearby Hill of Ward.
In 1180 the Anglo-Norman invasion reached Athboy. As part of their plan to capture key towns and fortify them with a wall and castle, the Normans walled a square extending from the river to the Roman Catholic Church, and from Scarlet Park to the backs of the houses on the northwest side of Main Street. Athboy was granted a charter in 1497 by Henry VII of England and was by 1500 the most westerly stronghold of the Pale.
During the 1641 Rebellion, the town was captured by Eoghan Rua O'Neill. With Cromwell and the collapse of the Rebellion, much of the land ownership passed to adventurers from England. John Bligh, a Londoner, acquired large estates in the Athboy area. The head of the Bligh Family was named Earl of Darnley in 1725.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Darnley Family planned and carried out the development of the town, giving it the form that prevails today. It was not until 1909 after the Wyndham Act of 1903 had finally broken the power of the landlords, that Francis Walter, Earl of Darnley, auctioned the town of Athboy. The Darnley estate office, now the Kirwan Arms Hotel, was finally closed in 1948.