Fore — Fore

Fore is situated on the Kells-Castlepollard road in north-east Westmeath in a secluded marshy valley flanked by high ground on the north, east and south. The placename is derived from Fobhair, meaning a spring or well. This spring emerges from a rock known as Carraig Bhaile Fhobhair (the "Ben of Fore") on the south side of the town (Bradley et. al. 1985, 73). The precise date of Feichin's foundation is unknown but a date in the second quarter of the seventh century seems likely. The deaths of its abbots are recorded in the Annals from 705 until 1163. The monastery was a prosperous one and was burned or raided in 745, 771, 804, 830, 870, 971, 1025, 1069, 1095, 1112, 1114, 1149, 1163, 1169, 1172 and 1176 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 36; Leask n.d. 3-4). These raids indicate that it was a monastery of importance but it was probably eclipsed, if not actually suppressed, with the foundation of the Benedictine priory (WM004-035010-) in the 1180s. Fore was granted to Hugh de Lacy as part of the liberty of Meath in 1172 and in the same year De Lacy spent a fortnight at Fore and burned the monastery (Ann. Tig.). He may not have effectively occupied Fore, however, until c.1180 (Orpen 1911-20, 81) and the motte castle was probably built sometime between then and 1186. The Benedictine priory (WM004-035010-) was established before 1185 and the settlement had achieved borough status by c. 1235 (MacNiocaill 1977, 55). Little is known of the town in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the death of Walter de Lacy in 1241, Fore passed to Geoffrey de Geneville from whom it passed to Roger de Mortimer in 1308 (Orpen 1911-20, 286). St. Feichin's church (WM039-035003-) continued to be used throughout the later Middle Ages as a parish church, however, and as such it is mentioned in the 1302-06 ecclesiastical taxation of Ireland (Cal. doc. Ire., 259). It remained in Mortimer hands until the death of 'Richard, duke of York, in 1460 when it passed to the crown. By the fifteenth century Fore was an exposed frontier town of the Anglo-Norman colony. Attacks by the Irish resulted in the burning of the priory in 1423 and of the town c.1432 (Seymour 1934; Tresham 1828, 229, 254). It was perhaps as a response to this that Henry VI made a grant of murage to the town which was subsequently reaffirmed in 1462-3 by his successor Edward IV (Berry 1914, 25). The priory was also fortified at about this time. In 1463 the manor was granted to Thomas, earl of Desmond (Berry 1914, 301) and in 1475-6 to Christopher Nugent (Morrissey 1939, 455). In 1567 the Crown granted Christopher Nugent, lord of Delvin a 21 year lease 'of the site of the priory (WM004-035010-) or manor of Fowre, county Westmeath, lands of Fowre, a lough there called [Logheleyn], lands of Hilton, Carpenterston, Mylcasteltowne, Gilbertston, Rahen, Dromsawry, with a chapel and tithes, Comoylston, Lighill alias, Larkehill by the parts of the Breny, Fayron, Keneleighe, Ratheny, Donamore, Betaghton, Nynche, 13s. 4d. chief rents out of Nenaghe, in the said county, and the customs of the tenants ; the rectories of S. Mary (WM008-097002-) in Fower, S. Fekins (WM004-035003-) in Fower, Archidiorum (WM004-035004-) in Fower, Fayron, Faghley, Mayne, Leigheblay, Dromiskille, Ragarf, Oldecastell, and Balmagarvy, in the counties of Meath and Westmeath, and diverse parsonages in the Breny. To hold the possessions of Fower, for 21 years from 1582, at a rent of £175 10s 8d., and maintaining five horsemen’ (Nicholls 1994, 134). The church was in ruins at the time of Bishop Dopping's visitation of 1682-5 (Ellison 1975, 7). Little further is known of Fore until 1682 when Piers (1981, 66) stated: "this town of Foure is at this day but very mean, the inhabitants very poor and live in small cottages". It would appear then that the later fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of contraction and recession. The early monastic remains consist of a group of isolated buildings on the west side of the village. These comprise St Feichin's church (WM039-035003-), Teampall Fionain (WM004-035001-), a souterrain (WM004-035006-), the anchorite's cell (WM004-035004-) and St. Feichin's mill (WM004-035012-). There is no evidence for an ecclesiastical enclosure or delimiting feature of the monastery. The modern east-west road through the village may coincide for part of its course with the medieval main street. It is evident that it does not overly it exactly, however, because the present road bypasses both of the surviving town gates. The date of the present street plan is difficult to determine. The absence of clear burgage plots indicates a lack of continuity in the centre of the town and accordingly it is possible that the street pattern has changed considerably since the middle ages. Apart from the east-west street there are two other streets, one leading north towards the Benedictine priory (WM004-035010-), the other, a lane, running eastwards past Christian's Castle (WM008-097003-) to the motte and bailey castle (WM004-035014-). The market place is in the centre of the village and is of triangular plan, occupied by a small village green. The site of the town gaol (WM004-035005-) lies to the north. A small seventeenth century cross (WM008-097001-) has been erected on the green (Bradley et. al. 1985, 74). None of the houses in the village have diagnostic pre-1700 architectural features but the masonry of some such as the Gaol, some walls at the rear of houses on the north side of the main street, the single storied shed on the east side of the Green, and the two storied house, now used as a farm outhouse, immediately north of the shed, may be of pre-1700 date. In the absence of detailed masonry studies, however, this remains only a guess (ibid. 75). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 21 November 2013