The River Dee runs through the centre of Ardee, and the ford that gave the town its Irish name — Baile Átha Fhirdhia, the Town of the Ford of Ferdia — would have been somewhere near the current bridge. The legendary battle between Cú Chulainn and his foster-brother Ferdia, described in the Ulster Cycle epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, is set here. There is no formal monument at the ford itself, but standing at the river you are at the site of one of the most famous single combats in Irish mythology.
Ford of Ferdia — Mythological Site
A story
The combat between Cú Chulainn and Ferdia lasted four days at this ford. They were foster-brothers and close friends, but Ferdia had been persuaded to fight for Queen Medb in the war over the Brown Bull of Cooley. Each night they tended each other's wounds and shared food and medicine. On the fourth day Cú Chulainn used the Gáe Bulg — a barbed spear thrown with the foot — and killed Ferdia. He mourned him bitterly afterwards. The story is one of the most moving passages in early Irish literature.