Monasterboice was founded in the late 5th century by Saint Buithe and faded after Mellifont was built nearby in 1142. What remains is a graveyard still in use, two later churches, a round tower about 28 metres high, and three 10th-century high crosses. The best of them, Muiredach's High Cross, is 5.5 metres tall and named after an abbot who died in 923. It is regarded as the finest high cross in Ireland, carved with scenes from both Testaments, from Adam and Eve to the Adoration of the Magi.
The site is owned by the National Monuments Service and open to the public free of charge, a short drive north of Drogheda. Give yourself time with the main cross: the panels reward slow looking. A cast of Muiredach's Cross stands in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, but here it is still in the field where it was raised.