Slane Castle (Irish Cáisleán Bhaile Shláine) is located in the village of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family seat of the Conyngham family since it was built in the late 18th century, on land first purchased in 1703 by Brig.-Gen. Henry Conyngham. It holds the Slane Festival within its grounds, with the Irish Independent claiming in 2004 that "Slane today is the kind of internationally recognised venue that can claim even Madonna's attention". Its sloping lawns form a natural amphitheatre. History On the eastward side of the castle demesne, directly between the River Boyne and the village's Church of Ireland church in Slane, lay the ruins of St. Erc's Hermitage, a 15th-century multi-storey chapel, and with some 500 metres westward of St. Erc's Hermitage an ancient well can also be found. In one of the central texts of Irish mythology, the , this well is said to have been blessed by the God so that the could bathe in it and be healed, allegedly healing all mortal wounds except decapitation. However, with the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and the policy of Christian reinterpretation for traditionally pagan sites, the well is now more commonly referred to as Our Lady's Well. Prior to the 1688 overthrow of the House of Stuart, Slane Castle had been in the possession of the Flemings, Hiberno-Normans who had aligned themselves with the Jacobites in the War of the Grand Alliance, and thus after the Williamite victory, their property was chosen for confiscation. Christopher, 17th Baron Slane (1669 – 14 July 1726; created The 1st Viscount Longford by Queen Anne in 1713), was the last Fleming Lord of Slane. Overlooking the River Boyne, just a few kilometres upstream from Newgrange and the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne, Slane Castle in its existing form was constructed under the direction of William Burton Conyngham, together with his nephew The 1st Marquess Conyngham. The reconstruction dates back to 1785 and is principally the work of James Gandon, James Wyatt and Francis Johnston. Francis Johnston was also the architect responsible for the gothic gates on the Mill Hill, located to the east of the castle. The Conynghams are originally a Scottish Protestant family, who planted in Ireland in 1611, during the Plantation of Ulster in County Donegal. With that, the family asserted control over lands around the village