Laytown
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| Laytown | ||
| Location | ||
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| Irish Grid Reference O162714 |
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| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
| County: | County Meath | |
| Elevation: | Sea level | |
| Population (2002) - Town: - Rural: |
5,597 |
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Laytown is a village in County Meath, Republic of Ireland. It hosts a single annual horse racing meeting on its beach - the only grandstand race meeting in Europe held on the beach under official rules. There is a garda station and two primary schools which occupy a site of approximately 2 acres the buildings thereon being a series of dated school buildings and Portokabins.
Laytown is 29 miles north of the nation's capital, Dublin. Laytown and neighboring town, Bettystown, sit on one of Ireland's most scenic beach fronts.
Both Irish and American movies (The Crying Game and Michael Collins) and television shows have been filmed all over Laytown, mostly on the beach.
[edit] Changes in Laytown
Laytown was once a tiny coastal village, but in the past decade, the town has seen both a huge population and economic boom. With the ever developing and growing city of Dublin, Laytown, along with other villages and towns all along the east coast, has recorded a population boom. The village has become well established as a commuter town for people working in Dublin, fuelled by the completion of the M1 linking the north east of republic to the capital and also the fact that the village is served by the Northern commuter line linking Drogheda and Dundalk to Connolly station, Dublin, with services running every 20 minutes at peak.
[edit] Laytown becomes Famous
On the famous beach at Laytown and Bettystown, one of the biggest historical finds in Irish history was made. In 1850 a peasant woman accidentally found the Tara Brooch in a box buried in the sand. The Tara Brooch is priceless, incrusted with rare jewels and dating back to hundreds of years ago. It now rests in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
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