Historic town in Abbeyland South,blackcastle Demesne,townparks (navan Lower By.)

Situated on a broad hill in the angle between a W-E section of the Cavan River Blackwater at N and a SE-NW course of the River Boyne at E. At the confluence the Boyne turns E and then NE. Hugh de Lacy had granted the barony of Navan to Jocelyn de Angelo by 1175 and the motte and bailey castle (ME025-023001-) might have been built shortly afterwards as the caput or centre of the fief, perhaps on an ancient burial mound. Such a crucial confluence of two important waterways soon became the focus of a town, and it is possible that the Augustinian abbey of St. Mary’s (ME025-024----) had been established, perhaps on an older church site, before the Anglo-Norman settlement. This was known as Nuachongbhail – New settlement - which was reputedly the site of a church founded by St. Fechin of Fore (WM04-035003-), but the occurrences of the name are later interpolations. The area was originally known as Odhbha with references from 612 (AU) when a battle was fought amongst the Aed Sláine branch of Uí Néill. The mythological Odhbha was a daughter of Milesius, leader of the last of the five mythological invasions of Ireland, and the name would have been applied to her burial mound which could be incorporated in the motte. The Dindshenchas, a ninth to twelfth century collection of lore about places, describes Odhbha as a grave on a ridge, and the name would be applied to the territory. Odhbha is easily corrupted into Novan or Nouan, applied first to the Augustinian abbey (ME025-024----) in its charters after 1170. In Gaelic Odhbha is equally corruptible into Uaimh – cave or grave – an apt description for the original mound and the name used in the few annalistic references. (Ó Murchadha 1992-3) The development of the town is not fully elucidated but its corporate status is first acknowledged in 1462 (Brooks 1933, 223). The town was plundered by O’Neill and O’Donnell in 1539, and in 1543 Parliament imposed a charge on every ploughland in Meath in order to fund the construction of walls for Navan. Although murage at Navan had been collected since the fifteenth century at least, the walling might never have been completed and in 1593 Navan was listed as a market rather than a walled town (Bradley and King 1985, 94-5, 98). The brief description of the town in the Civil Survey (1654-6) mentions Feshings Gate and Sweynes Bridge as well as houses on the north side of Canonrow St outside West Gate as well as houses outside the Dublin Gate (Simington 1940, 222-3). Two castles and four houses, by which stone houses are meant, are specified. The Down Survey (1656-8) barony map depicts the town as an enclosed rectangular area backing onto the River Boyne at NE, with the abbey outside the walls at N and a bridge crossing the Blackwater below it. There was no bridge across the Boyne until c. 1750, but the river may have had a ford as the name Athlumney - Áth Luimnigh – ford of the bare place?, or of the herds (Boylan 1988, 52), for the land on the other side indicates. The medieval town had three streets meeting at the triangular Market Square, with numerous alleys off the principal thoroughfares. From the property boundaries depicted in the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map the small extent of the walled town (c. 7 ha) can be outlined and a section of wall (ME025-044003-) survives behind the houses on the S side of Abbey Road while other evidence of it has been found in excavation. Excavations within the town show that there was a high knoll of gravel around the N angle of the town and this area is described as ‘Sandymount’ on the OS 25-inch map of 1908. In other parts of the walled area excavations generally record medieval deposits beneath a deep overburden of post-medieval construction and dumping. Outside the walls medieval properties are being recorded in excavation on the NE side of Canon Row St. in line with the Civil Survey evidence. See the attached image from the Down Survey barony map of Navan (N at left), courtesy of the National Library of Ireland Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 31 March 2023 AU Annals of Ulster Bradley, J. and King, H. A. 1985 Urban archaeological survey – county Meath. Unpublished report commissioned by the OPW, Dublin Brooks, E. St John 1933 A Charter of John de Courcy to the Abbey of Navan. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63, 38-45. Ellison, Rev. C.C. 1963 Some Aspects of Navan History. Ríocht na Midhe 3, 1, 33-56. Ó Murchadha, D.n 1992-3 Odhbha and Navan. Ríocht na Mídhe vol. 8, No. 4, 112-23 Simington, R. C. 1940 The Civil Survey AD 1654-1656. vol. V, County of Meath. Dublin, Stationery Office