Drogheda Itineraries
Half a day or a full weekend. Here are the best ways to spend your time in Drogheda, planned step by step.
Whether you have a few hours off the Commuter train or a full weekend to explore, these itineraries give you a local’s route through Drogheda. Each one links directly to the restaurants and activities along the way.
Half a Day in Drogheda: The Medieval Town on Foot
The compressed version, built for someone off a Dublin train with an afternoon to spend. Everything here is on foot, nothing needs booking, and the total walking is under three kilometres. It takes in the barbican, the shrine, the gallery and the view, in the order that makes the town make sense.
- 112:30·45 minutes
Lunch at Five Good Things
Start with lunch on St Laurence Street at the cafe attached to Highlanes Gallery. It closes mid-afternoon, so this is the right end of the day for it, and it puts you at the top of the street you want to walk down anyway.
View Five Good Things - 213:15·45 minutes
Highlanes Gallery
Walk through the door beside the cafe into the former Franciscan church that now holds the Drogheda Municipal Art Collection. Admission is free and it takes as long as you want to give it. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
View Highlanes Gallery - 314:00·20 minutes
St Laurence's Gate
Two minutes down the same street and you are standing under the 13th-century barbican with traffic going through it. There is nothing to pay and nothing to book; the point is the scale of it.
View St Laurence's Gate and the Town Walls - 414:30·40 minutes
St Peter's and the Shrine of St Oliver Plunkett
Back west along Laurence Street into West Street, past the Tholsel, to the Gothic church that holds the preserved head of the martyred Archbishop of Armagh. It is a working parish church, so keep it quiet.
View St Peter's Church and the Shrine of St Oliver Plunkett - 515:20·1.5 hours
Cross the river and climb to Millmount
Over St Mary's Bridge and up Congress Avenue, which is short and steep, to the mound the whole town is arranged around. The museum closes tours an hour before it shuts and the tower closes at 4:30pm, so this is the timing that matters most in the whole afternoon.
View Drogheda Museum Millmount and the Martello Tower - 617:00·1 hour
Down to the quays for a pint
Come off Millmount to the south quay and the Boyne boardwalk, or cross back to the north side for Clarke's on Peter Street if you want the old pub rather than the river view. Either way you finish looking at the water.
View Clarke's Bar
A Full Day: Drogheda and the Boyne Valley
A day that uses Drogheda as what it actually is, the gateway to the Boyne Valley, and does the upriver heritage properly without pretending you can drive to Newgrange. This needs a car, and it needs the Bru na Boinne tickets booked well in advance. If the tickets are gone, swap step two for the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge, which is closer and does not need booking.
- 108:30·45 minutes
Breakfast in town
Eat early on the north side and get moving. The Moorland Cafe and Bakery on West Street, run by McCloskey's, is the local breakfast rather than the hotel one.
- 209:30·3 hours
Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre for Newgrange or Knowth
Drive out to Donore, about 7km west. This is the only way in to Newgrange and Knowth: the tour leaves from the visitor centre by shuttle bus and every ticket has to be booked in advance. Allow the full morning, and if you did not get a monument tour, the exhibition alone is worth the stop and needs no booking.
View Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre, for Newgrange and Knowth - 313:00·2 hours
The Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge
Ten minutes back east along the river to Oldbridge, where William and James fought in 1690. The grounds and walled garden are free, the exhibition is currently free from the stable yard while Oldbridge House is closed, and the self-guided walks over the battle ground are the reason to give it more than an hour.
View Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge - 415:30·1.5 hours
Millmount and the view back over it all
Back into Drogheda and up to Millmount. Having spent the day upriver, the view from the Martello tower down the Boyne to the viaduct is the piece that ties it together, and the museum below it covers the town's own industrial and military story.
View Drogheda Museum Millmount and the Martello Tower - 517:30·45 minutes
The DRAWDA murals on the way back into town
Walk two or three of the six mythology murals on the way down, starting with Boann, the goddess the river is named for, at Abbey Lane. The QR codes at each site play the story behind the artwork.
View DRAWDA Urban Art Trail - 619:00·2 hours
Dinner at D'Vine
Finish on Dyer Street at the town's best-known restaurant, in a Georgian townhouse, with tapas plates or a flame-grilled steak and a wine list that is the actual point. Book ahead: last bookings are earlier than you would expect.
View D'Vine at Distillery House
Ready to plan your visit?
Check live Commuter train departures and the weather forecast before you head out.