Religious house — Cistercian monks in Kilbeggan

Kilbeggan town (WM038-017----) is situated on the River Brosna in the low-lying countryside of south Westmeath. According to Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 388) a monastery (WM038-017001-) was founded at Kilbeggan by St Beagán in the sixth or seventh century. The early monastery was superseded by a Cistercian monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This abbey known as De Benedictio Dei, was founded c.1150 as a daughter house of Mellifont, probably by members of the MacCochlain family (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 137). In 1213 Mael Sechlainn MacCochlain, Lord of Delvin, died on pilgrimage to the abbey and in the same year his sons Ruaidhri and Mael Sechlainn died there (ibid., 137). In 1228 the abbey was made subject to Buildwas Abbey in England but judging by the names of its abbots it seems to have retained an Irish character throughout the Middle Ages (ibid., 137). At the Dissolution the abbey was apparently granted to Owen O Morrain of Multifarnham (Walsh 1957, 274-5) but in 1550 it was in the possession of Francis Digby, alias Ros MacEochacain (Morrin 1861, 233). It passed through various hands until 1606 when it was granted to Sir Oliver Lambert (Erck 1846-52, 267-8). In this year Sir Oliver Lambert was granted ‘the site and precinct of the late abbey of the B. V. Mary of Kilbeggan, in M’Geoghogans countrie, with the stone walls of a church and other buildings therein – 3 gardens, and a waste orchard, containing half an acre – a small chapel or church (WM038-017006-) belonging to the town of Kilbeggan, and to the parishioners of said monastery – a close to said monastery adjacent, containing 1a. – 3 messuages, 6 cottages, 60a. arable, standard measure, 16a. pasture, 6a. bog, in the town and fields of Kilbeggan – a water mill (WM038-017008-), near the town of Kilbeggan, upon the river Brassnagh (Brosnagh) – 2 eel-weares (WM038-017010-), 2 mess., 3 closes or cottages, 70a. arable, 30a. pasture and common of bog’ (ibid., 268). The terrier of the 1656-59 Down Survey map of Moycashel Barony recorded that in Kilbeggan there 'stood a faire Monastery' (NLI Ms. 723-724). In 1682 Piers (1981, 84) recorded that in Kilbeggan there ‘stood a monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary, founded anno 1200, and replenished with monks from the Cistercian abbey of Mellifont; of this abby [abbey] remains only the name of the structure, not so much as the rubbish to be seen this day, nor of the house built here by the late lord Lambert before the late war, more than the ruins; for it was burnt in the late war, and is not to this day repaired. In this town stands a church (WM038-017006-) in repair’. The Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that the abbey lay immediately north-west of the old burial ground (WM038-017002-) south of the town (WM038-017----). In 2003 the site of the Cistercian abbey was precisely located when a geophysical survey was carried out in an area to the W of the graveyard (WM038-017002-). The geophysical survey carried out by GeoArc Ltd revealed the sub-surface ground plan or footprint of the levelled Cistercian abbey. The abbey appears to have been built around an early medieval monastery (WM038-017001-), which is still in use as a graveyard (WM038-017002-) (Hayden 2006, 522). A resistivity survey of the field to the W of the old graveyard (WM038-017002-) revealed the ground plan of the Cistercian abbey which consisted of a long rectangular church of cruciform plan with cloister and claustral building range to the S of the church. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 April 2014