Tag Archives: Slane

An Octagonal Square


In the centre of Slane, County Meath stands the Square, which is actually an octagon and was laid out by the Conyngham family in the mid-18th century. Four of the sides are occupied by almost identical houses dating from c.1760, all  being of three bays and three storeys over basement and fronted in the same limestone, with brick chimneystacks at either gable and hipped roof. Only the doorcases display modest differences in design, that above (on the north-east corner) featuring engaged columns while that below (south-east) corner has pilasters. The latter house is currently for sale.

To the Mill

The former flour mill located on the north bank of the river Boyne at Slane, County Meath. A joint enterprise between three parties, Blayney Townley Balfour I of Townley Hall, William Burton Conyngham who lived at Slane Castle, and David Jebb, a local miller and engineer, it was constructed 1763-66 at a cost of £19,187 (including the erection of a fine miller’s house). When the English agronomist Arthur Young visited the site in 1776 he described it as ‘138ft long, the breath 54ft and the height to the cornice 42ft, being a large and handsome edifice, such as no mill I have seen in England can compare with it.’ He recorded the mill’s output as being upwards of 17,000 barrels of flour (20 stone each) per annum and the granaries capable of holding 5,000 barrels, making it one of the largest such operations in Europe at the time. The mill was operated by only 10-12 people despite then being the largest of its kind in Europe.