Millmount Fort (Drogheda (Droichead Átha)) | tower, museum, martello tower, tourist attraction

 tower, museum, martello tower, tourist attraction

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Millmount Fort is without doubt the most dominant feature of Drogheda, sited as it is atop its great mound, and clearly visible from most parts of the town and the surrounding areas. One of many legends regarding the origins of the mound says that it is the burial place of Amergin, an early Celtic poet, but it has also been suggested that it was possibly a large passage grave like Newgrange. It was fortified as a motte by tile Normans in the 12th century and a castle was later built on its summit. The fort offered Cromwell the strongest resistance he encountered during the siege of 1649. About 1808, the old fortifications were demolished and the present Martello type tower was erected. The fort was considerably damaged when it was shelled from the town by Free State forces during the civil war in 1922 and was finally restored by Drogheda Corporation. It has been open to the public since June 2000.

Surveying Drogheda and the surrounding countryside from its summit, it is not difficult to realise the wisdom of the selection of Millmount as the site for a fort that would also be watchtower, especially in those times when vigilance was vital to the defence of such an important town. All approach routes from the four points of the compass were clearly visible from its height. To the south lay the broad plain of Magh Breagh, in the Kingdom of Meath, to the north the very exposed slopes of Tullyesker. Below the escarpment, running west to east from the wooded green valley at Old bridge to the mouth of the estuary at Baltray, the winding course of the Boyne was exposed fully to view. It would have been extremely difficult for even the smallest river craft to escape notice.

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