County Monaghan is Ireland’s best-kept secret.
It’s home to Lough Muckno, a world-class centre for angling and wakeboarding; Clones Lace and Carrickmacross lace, an exquisite technique used in royal wedding dresses over many centuries; round towers, historic houses and the drumlin-dotted landscape which inspired the poems of Patrick Kavanagh.
The name Muineachán derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning “brake” (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes “hillock”. The county council’s preferred interpretation is “land of the little hills”, a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area. Another translation of the name splits the Irish name into “Muine Acháin” – with “acháin” meaning field. With this separation, and depending on the interpretation of “muine”, “Muine Acháin” could be translated to “bushy (over-grown) field” or “hilly field”.
