This is an area incorporating the broader landscape around the Hill of Tara. While the evidence from the sites concentrates heavily on the early medieval period, there are also substantial traces of prehistoric and later medieval activity.

The book also contains an important contribution to the documentary evidence for later medieval settlement. Among the interesting results of the excavations is the sequence of burials at Ardsallagh 1, which extends from the later Bronze Age into the early medieval period. This includes some interments that date to the Iron Age, and thus our knowledge of a period that is poorly known from the sites and monuments record is enhanced. One of the more striking achievements is the discovery of the ceremonial post enclosure at Lismullin.

The current dating evidence places the ritual site between the late sixth and the early fourth century BC and situates Lismullin firmly within the series of Early Iron Age ceremonial monuments. The investigation of a number of human burials of the later Iron Age and early medieval period, not least at Collierstown, has shed new light on the gradual Christianisation of the landscape. It appears that traditional cemeteries continued in use but the burial practices gradually changed under the influence of ideas from overseas. The importation of exotic pottery from the Mediterranean lands gives a hint of the links that the new Christian world opened to the inhabitants of Meath at the beginning of the early medieval period.