ARDEE, town, Co. Louth, Ireland, on the river Dee, 48m. N.W. from Dublin, on a branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1926) 1,73o. The town is of high antiquity, and its name (Ather-dee) is taken to signify the ford of the Dee, a point of strategic importance. A large rath, or encampment, with remains of fortifications, stands to the south of the town. A castle of the lords of the manor was built early in the 14th century and re mains, as does another adjacent fortified building of the same period. Roger de Peppart, lord of the manor early in the 13th cen tury, founded the church (the present Protestant church) and a house of Crutched Friars. There was also a house of Carmelite Friars, but neither of these remains. Ardee received its first recorded charter in 1377. It was sacked by Edward Bruce (1315 ) and by O'Neill (1S38) ; it was taken by the Irish and recaptured by the English in the wars of 1641, and was occupied later by the forces of James II. and of William III.