The river Boyne was named after Nuada's young wife Boand.   She once
looked into a secret well that no one was to look into. As a result the water
rose up in the well and overflowed.  She ran in front of the flowing water
until she reached Drogheda and was drowned.  The river was then named
an Bh/oinn The Boyne.

The Boyne runs eastward into the sea thirty miles north of Dublin.   Droichead Atha (the bridge of the ford or Drogheda) was the location
of the first bridge to cross the river.  The only other bridge was at Slane
nine miles up river to the West.

The Boyne was a tidal river upon which shipping could reach Drogheda at high tide but they could not be too heavy. The river was still tidal until
just past the hamlet of Oldbridge.  Oldbridge consisted of about a half a dozen stone houses centered around an old church. Oldbridge is 3 miles upriver from Drogheda.  The river was no longer tidal where the Mattock river flowed into it from the east just opposite Oldbridge. It is here that
rapids are created.

The river widens to skirt around two islands just before Oldbridge if
you are comming from Drogheda.  Yellow Island is 16 acres in size and Grove Island is five acres in size.  Here the river flows to the north-east past the mouth of the Mattock on the east bank and Oldbridge on the west.  As the river heads to Slane it curves around a great plain on which one finds
the most important monuments of prehsitoric Ireland..  Along the river one
finds many fords which could be crossed at low tied.  To the south of Oldbridge is found the Hill of Donore which commands the view from north to east but not to the west.  The village of Donore was a little to the south but its church, the only structure was in ruins at the time of the battle.

The hill  of Donore is steep on its Western  slope but it sank in gradual undulations towards the Boyne and Oldbridge.
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