Arriving to CityNorth Hotel, guests could be forgiven for thinking of the hotels in terms only of its easy and direct accessiblity via the M1 Motorway. However do not let our convenient location and modern building exterior mislead you into overlooking the rich cultural hinterland which lies to the west side and in fact all around the hotel! 

The wonderful and well-known historical gems which this region is blessed with include the beautiful Boyne Valley, Oldbridge House & site of the Battle of the Boyne, Historic Drogheda and not forgetting Newgrange, the ancient burial tomb – these are just some of the justifiably popular attractions to which visitors flock every year…!

CityNorth Hotel is very fortunate to lie at the gateway to this famous Boyne Valley Region, with the glorious Meath coastline nearby. Dublin is only a short trip away for guests who might also want to take in a visit to the Capital City.
(Thanks to the Matthews coach service which calls daily to CityNorth Hotel, our hotel guests don’t need to contend with city centre traffic or parking!).

However, closer to home and within paces of the hotel… starting from the hotels front door in fact, our guests will delight in the fascinating hidden heritage which lies immediately around us.

Hidden heritage that is just waiting to be explored... 

-    Use our new AUDIO GUIDE
-    Avail of the insightful knowledge of our LOCAL HISTORIAN
-    Pick up the pace with a BICYCLE hired from the hotel
-    Explore further afield using the hotels pre-loaded SatNav itinerary
 
We discovered some time ago in talking with Brendan Matthews (a very interesting and knowledgeable local historian), that the site on which CityNorth Hotel was built was in fact a prehistoric salt mine! Some 4000 years ago, the ‘Industry’ in this region centred around the production of salt. Sourced from seaweed, and brought in from the County Meath shoreline, the seaweed was simply dried out in a clay oven to make salt and then either traded in other parts of the country or used to preserve meat and fish in the locality. Processes which required just a little bit more effort than today...that is - a quick trip to our local Centra!

Brendan also told us of a Bronze Age which dominated this landscape some four and a half thousand years ago, where settlement sites or the remains of homes where these people lived, showed housing foundations that were built of wood and dried grass – known as ‘Wattle’ construction. 
Brendan was very generous with his time and in talking further with him, it became clear that this region is home to a wonderful world of rich and authentically Irish heritage and culture, and thus, our research began… and two new Heritage Trail routes were born!

One trail takes you to Stamullen village and into St Patricks Medieval Church ruins. The other takes you left at the end of the hotel path and into the rural area around Gormanston.

Further information on both routes can be found using our new heritage trail map which is available at the hotels reception

We have also recorded an Audio Guide for the Gormanston Trail, which guests can also pick up from the hotels reception. 

Listen here to one of the tracks now >>

For guests who wish to pick up the pace a little ….. and perhaps venture a little further to the stunning Gormanston coastline, we offer bicycle hire at the hotel.

A day spent outdoors is best enjoyed with a little ‘al fresco’ dining (weather permitting of course) and Jerome - our head chef and his kitchen team have put together a very tempting picnic luncheon menu which our guests may also order …if they wish. 

These local heritage trails last for between 1 hour to 90 minutes each …and of course with advance notice, we are happy to arrange a personally guided tour with our local historian…for a very reasonable fee.

Often when our guests have a little more free time than just a couple of hours, they’ll ask for a recommendation on sites to visit ….and with this is mind, we’ve put together a number of themed itineraries. 

You will see within our Heritage Trail Map that there is a page dedicated to a number of different topics of interest. So … if your particular interest is in ‘Irish Art & Literature’ for example…there is a page dedicated to relevant places to see within the area. The distance from CNH to each of these places is shown on the map and for added convenience, guests can borrow one of our new SatNavs from reception. These SatNavs ave been pre loaded with the GPS locations of each attraction on the map  … So our guests can simply select their destination and away they go…!

Other itinerary themes pages offer information on the following topics:

§       Medieval & Viking Era;
§       Magical Gardens & Parks;
§       Early Christian Ireland;
§       Great Historical Buildings 
and so on..

We look forward to welcoming you to CityNorth Hotel where you will 'open our door to explore' rich and authentically Irish culture and heritage all around.