Gormanston or Gormanstown is a village in County Meath

County Meath

County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It is near the mouth of the River Delvin and the northern border of County Dublin

County Dublin

County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...

.

Access

Gormanston is near the M1 Dublin-Belfast road. There is also Gormanston railway station

Gormanston railway station

Gormanston railway station opened in May 1845 and serves Gormanston in County Meath, Ireland.- External links :*...

, opened in May 1845, on the Dublin-Belfast line.

Bremore Port

Drogheda

Drogheda

Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

 port company are considering a move to Bremore near Gormanston, to create a state-of-the-art port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 which will also handle passengers.

Gormanston Camp

Gormanston Camp is home to B Company, 5th Infantry Battalion of the Irish Army

Irish Army

The Irish Army, officially named simply the Army is the main branch of the Defence Forces of Ireland. Approximately 8,500 men and women serve in the Irish Army, divided into three infantry Brigades...

 and is a former aerodrome of the Irish Air Corps

Irish Air Corps

The Air Corps is the air component of the Defence Forces of Ireland providing support to the Army and Naval Service, together with non-military air services such as search and rescue and the Ministerial Air Transport Service...

.
The camp has been linked with the new deep water port at Bremore, as a possible site for container storage and or as a site for storage of construction machinery and goods to build the new port.

Archeology

• The group of passage graves on either side of the mouth of river Delvin known as the Bremore/Gormanston group is believed by most experts on the passage grave culture in Ireland to mark the arrival of that culture from the Iberian peninsula and to be the precursor of later developments such as the Newgrange cluster. Legend also associates the site with the first landings of both St Patrick and Oliver Cromwell. The Gormanston area is outstandingly rich in neolithic artefacts and indeed those of all later periods.
• During construction of a gas pipeline between the UK and Ireland a 7 metre long prehistoric dugout was found just offshore at Gormanston strand http://www.adco-ie.com/projects/uw-excavation.html Unlike other ancient Irish boats the Gormanston boat seems to have been of outrigger construction.

Historic features

• St Brigid's well in Tobersool is an ancient holy well associated with a cure for diseases of the eye.
• Several ancient cob cottages still exist in the village under more modern surfaces.
• The Cock pub at Gormanston cross has good claim to be the oldest public house in Ireland
• In 1870, the first authentic game of polo
  Polo
  Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
  
   in Ireland was played on Gormanstown Strand involving the 9th Lancers, who were at the time quartered in the country.

Gormanston Castle and the Prestons

Gormanston Castle was, from the 14th century to the 1950s, the seat of the Preston family, who managed to hold onto their estate lands through the centuries despite being staunch Catholics. The head of the family is known as Viscount Gormanston

Viscount Gormanston

Viscount Gormanston is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Preston family. It was created in 1478. The holder is the senior Viscount of Ireland, as well as the bearer of the oldest vicomital title in either Britain or Ireland. The Preston family descends from Sir Robert...

, premier Viscount of Ireland. The current holder of the title is Jenico Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston who resides in London.

The family sold the castle in the 1950s, when it was acquired by the Franciscan Order of Friars who then established a boarding school for boys in the grounds, known as Gormanston College

Gormanston College

Gormanston College is a private, fee-paying, coeducational Catholic secondary school under the trusteeship of the Franciscan Province of Ireland. The College is located at Gormanston Castle , near Gormanston, County Meath, about north of Dublin, Ireland.The student body numbers around 600 and...

.

Myth holds that when the head of the family is in his final hours, the foxes of County Meath, except for nursing vixens, emerge from their earths and make their way to the door of Gormanston Castle to keep vigil until he has died, in thanksgiving for the deliverance and protection from maurauding predators of a vixen and her young by a previous Lord Gormanston.

Now

As Gormanston lies near the Dublin border, it has undergone rapid development in the first decade of the century with CityNorth Business Park campus which is a mix of building, facilities, hotel and services.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland