Historic Trim, Ireland, by Bicycle
Our 10-day self-guided cycling tour in Ireland was coming to an end, and the heavy rain had finally arrived. We were in Carlingford, near the border to Northern Ireland, trying to push ourselves out the door of our quaint and warm hotel into the cold drizzle with the enthusiasm of a lost kitten, when a large van pulled up opposite.
Now the great thing about self-guided cycling tours is they provide everything: the bikes, the panniers, the maps and accommodation. All you have to do is get to the next town by the end of each day. But what’s really special about these tours is they move your luggage; each morning a car shows up, grabs your bags and delivers them to the next hotel where they await your arrival.
Trim Castle
Trim Castle
And today of all days, they'd sent a van to do just that. It didn’t take long for the driver to agree to pack our bikes in the back and take us to our next destination, the city of Trim. Actually, I think he was happy to have the company and, like everyone we’d met so far, he was more than pleased to share the tales and folklores of the Boyne River valley as we drove. By the time we reached Trim, the skies had cleared, and we had a 20-kilometre bike route that would lead us through this immensely historic region.
St. Patrick's Church
Maybe now most famous as the set for Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, Trim, with more medieval buildings than any other town in Ireland, has also been on numerous lists of top historical destinations in the world. And much of it centres around the immense Trim Castle. Built in the late 12th century, this largest of the Anglo-Norman castles in Ireland protected its English inhabitants from the local population they’d been sent to rule. Essentially unchanged since its construction, a tour of the castle offers unique insights into the daily life of its inhabitants, from how they used large water tanks to collect rain water – the castle had no spring or well as was the norm – to the use of fumes from the latrine, or garderobe as it was known at the time, to kill the lice and fleas that invaded their clothing.
St. Mary's Abbey and the Yellow Tower
Standing atop the castle walls gives you a real sense of the security and power the de Lacy family, the castle’s builders, must have felt. Seated alongside the Boyne River, the castle still towers formidably over the two-storey manor house of Talbot Castle and the Yellow Steeple, the lone survivor of the 14th century St. Mary’s Abbey. A short distance away, in the midst of the common land that stretches across the river from the castle, sits the Sheep’s Gate, a small remnant of the old city wall.
Leaving the castle, the short trek across Ireland’s oldest in-use bridge, which dates back to the 14th century, will take you up past the manor to Church Lane leading to the rebuilt 19th century St. Patrick’s Cathedral which still has the original 15th century parish church tower and numerous medieval gravestones. Continue past the church, back across Haggard Street and up Black Friary road at the end of which you’ll discover the Black Friary Excavations. These excavations have been ongoing since 2010 and have unearthed thousands of artefacts from medieval times, but skeletal remains show the site was used as a burial ground long after the buildings were gone, particularly for those excluded from consecrated burial grounds, including unbaptised children.
Returning to the castle, it is only a short one-and-half-kilometre ride down river to where the ruins of the Priory of St. John the Baptist and the Cathedral of St. Peter and St Paul, both established by the Norman Bishop, Simon de Rochfort, in the early 13th century, sit opposite on either bank. Of the priory, a church with its nave and chancel still stand, along with several walls and one exterior corner tower.
Next to the cathedral, which was at one time the largest Gothic Church in Ireland, stands what’s left of the Newtown Clonbun Parish Church. Although only a small portion of the original nave and chancel still stand, they house the well preserved, late-16th-century tomb of Sir Luke Dillon, chief baron of the Exchequer during the reign of Elizabeth I, and his wife Lady Jane Bathe. Known locally as the Tomb of the Jealous Man and Woman, probably because a sword lies between their effigies, legend has it, if you place a pin between the two reclining figures, as it rusts your warts will disappear. Not quite sure what that has to do with jealousy, but that’s what they say.
Priory of St. John
Cathdral of St. Paul and St. Peter
Tomb of the Jealous Man and Woman
Continue following the river past the priory another kilometre and a half and swing left where it does, onto L2203. This lovely country road winds through forests and farm fields to the town of Bective. At this point, you’re about halfway through your ride so a stop at Crockett’s, a cute little pub on the corner, for a bite and a pint might be just the thing.
Making a left at these crossroads brings you to the Bective Abbey, whose remnants are in good enough shape to have also been used in Braveheart. Founded in 1147, what stands today is leftover from a 13th century church, a 15th century cloister, and a 16th century tower. It is interesting to note that from 1386 on, men of Irish birth were no longer allowed to enter the abbey in an effort to keep it Anglo-Norman. One hundred and fifty years later, the abbey was confiscated by the crown under Henry VIII in an effort to control the wealth and power of the church and transformed into a country mansion.
Bective Abbey
Bective Abbey
From the abbey, you have several choices. You can return along the river the way you came, or you can continue past the abbey. In five hundred metres, make a left onto R161, which you’ll stay on for just over 2 kilometres before again turning left onto a smaller country road. This meanders through the countryside, returning to R161 on the outskirts of Trim.
Alternatively, you can cross R161 and ride to Robinstown where you’ll make a left onto another smaller country road which will, once again, lead you back to R161 outside of Trim.
A quiet street in Trim.
Back in Trim, just before you reach St. Mary’s Abbey, sit the James Griffin Pub and Brogan’s, two of those Irish pubs the country is famous for. Not a bad way to end your day.