placenamesFore
Baile Fhobhair
Fore’s churches, crosses and later mausoleum stand in a valley where physical landmarks have acquired enduring stories.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile Fhobhair · Irish · main form · validated name
- Fore · English · main form
Place & story
Feichin’s monastic landscape
Fore’s early monastery is associated with Saint Feichin in the seventh century. Among the surviving remains is a church dated to aroundAD 900. Wayside crosses extend the religious landscape beyond the main ruins: the Office of Public Works records eighteen Fore crosses spread across some ten kilometres of fields and roads. The surviving monuments therefore belong to a wider district, rather than a single enclosed abbey precinct. [2]
The anchorite’s tower and Nugent mausoleum
The building above the abbey combines a tower dating from around 1500 with a substantial nineteenth-century mortuary chapel. The Nugent family used it as a mausoleum from 1680, and an extensive remodelling followed in 1867 through the architectural practice of Pugin and Ashlin. Its stone roof, buttresses and elaborate Gothic doorway distinguish the later work from the older tower. Inside, monuments preserve earlier associations, including a 1616 memorial to Patrick Begley, described as Fore’s last hermit. [3]
The Seven Wonders
Fore’s Seven Wonders attach extraordinary qualities to features of the valley. A 1976 RTÉ report recorded traditions of water that would not boil, a tree that would not burn, water flowing uphill and a monastery standing on a bog. Another concerned the great lintel of Saint Feichin’s Church, believed to have been lifted into place through the saint’s power. These are traditions about the landscape and its patron, rather than literal descriptions of its physical properties. The broadcast shows their continued place in local heritage during the twentieth century. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Westmeath
- Barony
- Fore
- Civil parish
- Saint Feighin's
- Within
- Fore
- Coordinates
- 53.67713, -7.21302 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413770 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Fore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Fore Abbey · Office of Public Works
- Greville-Nugent Mausoleum,15400405 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Midland Marvels1976: The Seven Wonders of Fore · RTÉ Archives, Brendan O’Brien, broadcast17October1976
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-09-19. How this page was prepared.