Knightsbrook Hotel Spa & Golf

Trim Castle was begun in 1172 by Hugh de Lacy after Henry II granted him the Kingdom of Meath. Completed around 1224, the keep is cruciform — unusual among Norman keeps — with 20 corners, and the castle as a whole covers some 30,000 square metres. It is the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. In 1995 Mel Gibson used it as the English town of York in Braveheart, the film that won five Academy Awards including Best Picture. The castle is five minutes from the resort.

Christy O'Connor Jnr, the Galway-born Ryder Cup player whose 2-iron on the 18th at The Belfry in 1989 to beat world number one Fred Couples helped Europe retain the cup, designed Knightsbrook in 2006 across 186 acres of rolling Meath farmland. The Knightsbrook River — a tributary of the Boyne — winds through the property and along with nine man-made lakes provides 14 water features throughout the round. Newly constructed limestone walls on holes 4, 6, 11, and 12 reference the traditional field boundaries of the Irish countryside. The layout plays 7,270 yards from the back tees at a slope of 135: wide, generous fairways that forgive off the tee but demand precision near the water. The 18th is an unusual par-3 finish — a full carry over water to a stone-fronted green bunkered at the front, designed to hold an ending worth watching.

The Boyne Valley within thirty minutes contains as dense a cluster of ancient history as exists anywhere in Ireland or Europe. The Hill of Tara — the inauguration site of the High Kings of Ireland, in continuous ceremonial use for over 5,000 years — is fifteen minutes north. Newgrange, the 5,200-year-old passage tomb whose inner chamber is aligned with the rising sun at the winter solstice, predates the Egyptian Pyramids by 600 years. The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre at Oldbridge — where in 1690 William III's army defeated James II's in the engagement that defined the next three centuries of Irish history — is 25 minutes east and free to enter.