Fore Abbey

The village of Fore is located in a quiet valley in County Westmeath. In the village, you can find the spot where St Feichin founded a Christian monastery in the 7th Century AD.

The monastic House at Evreux in Normandy provided Fore with its first community. Because of this direct relationship with a French Abbey, Fore was regularly seized  by the crown as alien property when England was at war with France. It is believed that up to 300 monks lived in the community.
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The priory was built around the central cloister or courtyard. The rectangular church was built around 1200 AD. Two towers, one on its western end and another on above the sacristy at the south-east were built in the 15th century when the priory's buildings were incorporated into the town's fortifications.
The cloister and domestic buildings - which include the chapter house , the dormitory and the refectory all date to the 15th Century, but they include earlier 13th Century work.

To the north-east of the church is a rare example of a columbarium where pigeons were kept to provide food for the large community.

50 meters to the south-east is the gate house that originally was built in the 13th or early 14th Century, but had to be rebuilt at least 4 times. Among the remains on site, visitors can also see St Fechin’s church which was built about 900 AD.

The area is perfect for walking, and the St Feichin's way is a 3km looped walk around the site that brings you along local places of interest.
Search for the 18 Fore crosses which are scattered throughout the region or discover the renowned "seven wonders of Fore". These include a monastery in the bog, a mill without a race, water that flows uphill, water that won't boil,...