Meath (/miːð/ MEEDH; Modern Irish: Mí; Old Irish: Mide [ˈmʲiðʲe]) was a kingdom in Ireland from the 1st to the 12th century AD. Its name means "middle," denoting its location in the middle of the island.

At its greatest extent, it included all of County Meath (which takes its name from the kingdom), all of County Westmeath, and parts of counties Cavan, Dublin, Kildare, Longford, Louth and Offaly.

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The Hill of Uisneach sits in County Westmeath, right at the heart of Ireland’s Ancient East and at the geographic centre of the country. Tightly bound in history and spirituality alongside the nearby Hill of Tara, Uisneach is an especially significant site in Ireland’s ancient history. Amongst the scattered monuments on and around what James Joyce once called a “mountainy molehill” are buried tombs and Neolithic chambers, standing stones and holy wells. The stories of Irish legends like St. Patrick, St. Brigid and the Kings of Meath all pass through here.

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On the southwest side of the hill sits the Cat Stone, a limestone rock that rises nearly 20-feet out of the ground. The Cat Stone is descibed as an ancient omphalos that marks the centre of the earth for cultures in the region, much like those that once stood at Delphi in ancient Greece and Cusco in Peru. Beneath this “navel stone,” the stories say, rests the goddess Éire, Ireland’s mother earth and the deity from whom the country takes its name. (In Irish, Ireland is called “Éire,” pronounced “air-uh.”) She was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Bright and Shining Ones who ruled from here.