Overview
Indicated — Bey More is recorded as Building in Meath. The French Cistercian abbey of de Bello Becco in Normandy established a grange or out-farm about 5 km outside Drogheda at Bey More that came to be known as Beaubec. The foundation date is not known, but sometime after 1225 Walter de Lacy granted lands at Gillekeran to the church of SS Mary and Laurence of Beaubec. The name Gillekeran – servant of Kieran – suggests it may be on an older ecclesiastical foundation or on Church land. In 1259 Geoffrey de Geneville granted further land to Beaubec at Kells, and Beaubec was valued at almost 30 shillings in 1304-06.
Who lived here and when
The saved account records: Through the marriage of his daughter Mary to Henry Draycott the property passed to this English family but in 1640 their descendent John Draycott, described as an Irish papist, owned 640 acres in Bey More and Bey Beg where there was a stone house and some outhouses and cabins (Simington 1940, 3-4).
Homes and daily life
The saved account records: The French Cistercian abbey of de Bello Becco in Normandy established a grange or out-farm about 5 km outside Drogheda at Bey More that came to be known as Beaubec. The foundation date is not known, but sometime after 1225 Walter de Lacy granted lands at Gillekeran to the church of SS Mary and Laurence of Beaubec. The name Gillekeran – servant of Kieran – suggests it may be on an older ecclesiastical foundation or on Church land.
What was found
The saved account records: Archaeological excavation (97E0046) uncovered a cobbled surface overlying the foundations of a wall (Wth 1m
Why it ended
The saved account records: H c. 7m) with a buttress at its far end extended NE from the N angle of the tower.
Why it mattered
Indicated — Bey More matters because the source ties building to this exact landscape and preserves evidence that a bare map name loses. The saved account adds: In 1259 Geoffrey de Geneville granted further land to Beaubec at Kells, and Beaubec was valued at almost 30 shillings in 1304-06.
History checked 15 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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