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Banquet Hall

County Meath


Tara's most unusual feature is a rectangular earthwork measuring 230m by 27m along a north–south axis. Tradition holds that it was built to cater for thousands of guests during feasts.

Its orientation suggests that it was a sunken entrance to Tara, leading directly to the Royal Enclosure. More recent research, however, has uncovered graves within the compound, and it's possible that the banks are in fact the burial sites of some of the kings of Tara.


Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±'s must-see attractions

Nearby County Meath attractions

1. Gráinne's Fort

0.13 MILES

Gráinne was the daughter of King Cormac, the most lauded of all high kings. Betrothed to Fionn MacCumhaill (Finn McCool), she eloped with Diarmuid, one of…

2. Tara Visitor Centre

0.13 MILES

A former Protestant church (with a window by acclaimed stained-glass artist the late Evie Hone) is home to Tara's visitor centre, which screens a 20…

3. Rath of the Synods

0.14 MILES

Tara's Protestant church grounds and graveyard spill onto the remains of this triple-ringed fort where some of St Patrick's early synods (meetings)…

4. Royal Enclosure

0.24 MILES

South of Tara's church, the Royal Enclosure is a large oval Iron Age hill fort, 315m in diameter and surrounded by a bank and ditch cut through solid rock…

5. Enclosure of King Laoghaire

0.26 MILES

South of Tara's Royal Enclosure is this large but worn ring fort where the king, a contemporary of St Patrick, is said to be buried standing upright and…

6. Dunsany Castle

3.2 MILES

You can see how the other 1% lives at Dunsany Castle, 5km south of Tara on the Dunshaughlin–Kilmessan road. The residence of the lords of Dunsany, it's…

7. Bective Abbey

3.76 MILES

The extraordinarily preserved yet little-visited ruins of Cistercian Bective Abbey are off the R161, 7km northeast of Trim. Founded by Murchadh O'Melaghin…

8. Tayto Park

6.75 MILES

At Ireland’s only permanent theme park you can ride Europe's largest wooden inverted roller coaster, Cú Chulainn. Just 45 minutes from Dublin city center,…