BALLYMORE — Ballymore,clonyveey,mullaghcloe

In 1606 King James I granted John Wakeman ‘the castle (WM034-182----) of Balleemore-Loughsewdie, and 4 carucates of land adjoining, of which the town of Balleemore-Loughsewdie is parcel, and all the islands, fishings, mills, and weirs thereon-a Wednesday market, and a fair on the 4th, 5th, and 6th Oct. at Balleemore-Loughsewdie’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 90). The terrier of the 1656 Down Survey map of Ballymore parish states that 'on the lands of Balllimore stands the ruins of an old abby (WM024-034----) and a ruined church (WM034-005----) there is also a towne' (NLI MS 723-4). This clustered settlement of Ballymore was located N and S of the old Athlone-Dublin road, to the S of the medieval church (WM024-005----) and N of Plary monastery (WM024-034----) as depicted on the 1656 Down Survey maps of Ballymore parish and Rathconrath barony (NLI MS 723-4). This clustered settlement is also depicted on George Story's sketch map of Ballymore 1691 where it is shown as a linear settlement of houses arranged on either side of the Athlone-Dublin road located between the church (WM024-005----) and the cross-roads at the eastern end of the village, with the 'Round Castle' (WM024-182----) to the S (Story 1693, 318). The site of a medieval church (WM024-005----) is located 200m to the north, while a 17th century bastioned fort (WM024-004001-) and an Anglo-Norman motte (WM024-004----) are located 430m and 750m to the north respectively. A circular castle (WM024-182---) is located 200m to the south of the clustered settlement. In 1682 Sir Henry Piers described Ballymore as a ‘market town having two fairs in the year, seated on the west side of Lough-Seudy [Sewdy]’ (Vallancey 1786, 79-80). In 1691 the town of Ballymore was described as ‘a small village upon the Great Road between Mullingar and Athlone, being ten miles distant from each other. The place has always been very poor, and had only two or three Houses of Entertainment in it, the rest being all Irish Cabbins, to the number of a hundred or thereabouts, (though now there is neither House nor Cabbin standing). A little to the right of the Town as you go to Athlone, stood a pretty Church (WM024-005----) upon a rising ground’ (Story 1693, 87). This linear settlement was located either side of the Dublin-Athlone road at the E end of the present village of Ballymore. The houses of this village wee located on either side of the road between the medieval church (WM024-005----) an the cross-roads at the E end of the village. A cluster of narrow linear house plots on the N side of the Dublin-Athlone Road at the E end of the village which are depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map may represent some of the house plots shown on the 1691 sketch plan of the village. There are no crop marks visible of possible settlement earthworks on aerial photographs of the present village. No medieval houses or any houses of pre-1700 date have been identified standing on either side of the present Dublin-Athlone Road at the E end of the village of Ballymore. In 1691 it was recorded that the houses of Balllymore were of poor quality and that by this time there were no houses or cabins standing in the village of Ballymore. The Urban Survey of Westmeath (Bradley et. al. 1985, 63-4) recorded that ‘the borough of Ballymore Lough Sewdy, now called simply Ballymore, is situated on a low 300 feet rise between the high ground around the Hill of Uisneach, on the east, and the basin of Lough Ree to the west, roughly midway between Mullingar and Athlone, in south-west Westmeath. A story in the Dinnsheanchas explains the name as Loch Seimhdidhe [Seimhdí], Semtell’s lake, after the warrior Semtell who drowned while bathing there (Walsh 1957, 331). Ballymore means simply large town’ but the precise date when it came into use is not known although it was evidently so-called by the fifteenth century because it is referred to as ‘Lochside alias de villa magna’ in 1432, and as ‘Baile Mór Locha Seimdighe’ in 1450 (Walsh 1950, 330-1). The earliest evidence of settlement in the vicinity of the medieval borough is in the Early Historic period when there was an important crannog (WM024-002----) on the lake. In 1033 Murchadh Ua Mael Sechlainn was slain on the ‘island’ of Loch Seimdidhe (AFM). In 1131 it was plundered by Conchobar Ua Briain (ALC, AFM) and in 1159 Ruaidri Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, marched to Loch Seimhdidhe, dragging eight galleys overland and plundered ‘Inis Enain’ (presumably the actual name of the crannog), killing most of its people. The death of Aedh Slaine at Loch Seimdidhe in 600 (AFM) may indicate that the crannog was in use at this time but it is difficult to know whether such an early date may be relied on or not. It has been suggested that a monastery was established here c.700 but the suggestion lacks supporting evidence (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 374). After 1172 Lough Sewdy became part of Hugh de Lacy's Liberty of Meath. De Lacy kept Lough Sewdy for himself and after the destruction of the castle of Killare (WM024-053----) in 1187 it became the principal seigneurial manor (WM024-004----) of Westmeath (Orpen 1911-20, ii, 81; Graham 1980, 45). A substantial settlement (WM024-179----) seems to have developed fairly quickly. In 1204 Walter de Lacy was granted a fair at ‘Lochseveth’ (Cal. doc. Ire., No. 229) and the settlement acquired borough status before c.1235 when a burgage is referred to (Mac Niocaill 1977, 54-6). A convent of Cistercian nuns (WM024-181----) was established and a priory of Augustinian canons (WM024-034----) c.1250. After Walter de Lacy's death in 1241 Lough Sewdy passed to John de Verdon through his wife Margery who was de Lacy's granddaughter (Otway-Ruthven 1968, 411). The castle of Lough Sewdy (WM024-004----) now became the caput or centre of the de Verdon section of Meath just as Trim castle became the caput of the De Geneville area (Orpen 1911-20, iv, 174). In 1284 Theobald de Verdon received a grant of markets and fairs on his demesne manors, including Lough Sewdy (Cal. doc Ire. ii, Nos. 2303-4). In 1332 after the partition of the lands of Theobald de Verdun the manor of Lough Sewdy, including the profits and tolls of its hundred court and burgess returns was divided between de Lacy's four daughters and their husbands (Otway Ruthven 1968, 416, 421-37). In common with much of the Anglo-Norman colony in Ireland, Lough Sewdy experienced severe upheavals in the fourteenth century when it appears to have fallen into Irish hands. In 1315, having spent Christmas there, Edward Bruce burned the manor (Gilbert 1884 ii, 347) and in 1338-9 it was stated that the lands of Thomas de Furnival at Lough Sewdy, ‘are burned by the Irish and lie waste and uncultivated for want of tenants, and because no Englishman dared to live there on account of the Irish’ (47th Report Deputy Keeper Public Records Ireland, 31). This seems to have remained the case for the rest of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Two late fifteenth century documents describe the impoverished circumstances of the Augustinian priory (WM024-034----), which presumably reflects the state of the settlement as a whole during this period. In this respect it is surely significant that the convent of Cistercian nuns (WM024-181----) was abandoned about 1470. In 1540 the jurors appointed to make an extent of the priory of Lough Sewdy could not approach the neighbourhood ‘for fear of the Irish’ (White 1943, 284, 280). In 1545 Henry VIII planned to make the parish church (WM024-005----) of Lough Sewdy into the cathedral church of the diocese of Meath and this suggests some degree of effective English control at that date. In 1561 Shane O'Rono was pardoned for burning the town (11th Report Deputy Keeper Public Records Ireland 71: No. 365) and in 1566 both the town and ‘abbey’ were leased to Thomas le Strange (11th Report Deputy Keeper Public Records Ireland 128: No. 883, 128: No. 882). In 1606 King James