Tara Hill

Ancient religious and political centre in County Meath, Republic of Ireland. A national monument, and depicted in a 7th-century Life of St Patrick as the ‘capital of the Irish’, Tara Hill was the site of a palace and was the coronation place of many Irish kings. Its heyday was in the 3rd century AD, and the site was still in use in the 10th century. St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, preached here. Some tumuli and earthworks remain, and the pillar stone, reputed to be the coronation stone, can still be seen on the summit. In 1843 it was the venue for a meeting held by Daniel O'Connell, ‘the Liberator’, following the launch of his campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union (1801) in 1841.

In the 1990s Tara Hill was the subject of a literary and historical survey that aimed to survey documents in which the site was mentioned, and to construct a history of the area from AD 600 to the present.