House — 17th century in Kilbeggan

Kilbeggan 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. According to the Urban Survey (Bradley et. al. 1985, 102) the 'early monastery was superseded by a Cistercian monastery (WM038-017007-) c.1150 but the history of Kilbeggan as a town does not begin until the seventeenth century. In 1606 Sir Oliver Lambert was granted the site of the Cistercian monastery (Erck 1846-52, 267-9) and later in the same year he was granted a weekly market and annual fair at Kilbeggan (ibid., 267). On the 1656-59 Down Survey map of Moycashel Barony a tower house type building in ruins which may have been the house of Lord Lambert described by Piers (1981, 84) in 1682 is depicted standing between the abbey (WM038-017007-) and the parish church (WM038-017006-) close to the E bank of the River Brosna. In 1682 Piers (1981, 84) described the house of Lord Lambert as being in ruins when he recorded that ‘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 precise location of this seventeenth century house built by Lord Lambert c. 1640 has not been identified. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 April 2014