Faughan Hill is a low hill approximately five miles to the northwest of
Navan
Navan ( ; , meaning "the Cave") is the county town of County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 30,173, making it the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland by population, tenth largest settlement in ...
,
County Meath
County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It is owned by the Moriarty, McCabe, Dunne, English families, and is not open to the public. The highest point is owned by the Moriarty family.
Because the surrounding area of Meath is so flat, the hill is the most prominent feature in the local topography. Historians and
folklorists
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
believe that the hill's name originated from ''fraughan berries'' which in
mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
times were recorded as growing all around it.
According to legend,
Niall of the Nine Hostages
Niall ''Noígíallach'' (; Old Irish "having nine hostages"), or Niall of the Nine Hostages, was a legendary, semi-historical Irish king who was the ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties that dominated Ireland from the 6th to the 10th centuries. ...
, Irish
''Árd Rí'' (High King) and ancestor of the
Uí Néill
The Uí Néill (Irish pronunciation: ; meaning "descendants of Niall") are Irish dynasties who claim descent from Niall Noígíallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages), a historical King of Tara who died c. 405. They are generally divided into the ...
, is buried in a cave on the hill.
The small village of ''Greetiagh'' is located at the foot of the hill. In 1920, the local
Royal Irish Constabulary
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...
barracks in the village was attacked and burned by republicans during the
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
.
The hill was wooded with a hunting gap through its centre until it was cleared in 1962 by the McCabe's. In the 1970s, Sean Dunne opened a large quarry on its southern side; later closed, the quarry was reopened in the 1990s and in the 2000s. Since then, a telecommunications mast has been erected which provides coverage to a wide area.
History of County Meath
Mountains and hills of County Meath
{{Mountains and hills of Leinster