Carving out some local history in east Meath

An east Meath farmer will celebrate the historic nature of his land, by erecting four wooden panels depicting four people who had connections with the area over 700 years.

John McCullen's farm includes the site of the old Beaubec monastery, which was founded in 1200 and the carved panels, which will be erected there, depict four people with connection to the area who have been born centuries apart.

The wood used for the carvings by Drogheda artist, Terry O'Brien, is from a copper beech that stood on the land for three centuries but which fell during a storm in 2014.

John, a noted historian and member of the Old Drogheda Society was always convinced of the archaeological importance of his land at Beamore that he opted for pasture farming rather than tillage for fear that whatever was down there would be disturbed.

An initial archaeological dig carried out in 1997 revealed artefacts dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries and a more detailed excavation took place over the summers of 2019, 2020 and 2021, by local archaeologist Geraldine Stout, showed that the Beamore area was a hive of industry in medieval times with a community of monks working the land and building a monastery. Carbon dating on some artefacts found in the area showed they dated back as far as 2,200 BC, a period contemporary with Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.

The excavations point to the site being home to a group of Cistercian monks who originated in Beaubec in Normandy and travelled to Ireland in the 13th century to establish an abbey in Ireland on land granted to them by Walter de Lacey, the son of the powerful Hugh de Lacey who, in 1172, was granted the lands of the Kingdom of Meath by the Anglo-Norman King Henry II.

"It is from the French Beaubec that the area is know known as Beabeg and Beamore," John explains.

"The monks came around 1200 but were wiped out by the plague around 1340. They found a 'plague pot' which would have been used at that time to strengthen the lungs," he said.

Thomas Pearson, who had links to the Connolly's of Castletown later built a big house on the land flattening most of the monastery buildings but keeping what was known as the 'pigeon house.'

He built a four-story redbrick mansion, planted chestnuts, beeches and sycamores and evergreen oaks. He also built a circular redbrick ice-house which he covered with a two foot thick blanket of clay and grass.

A member of the Irish parliament in the early 1700s, Pearson had one daughter, who died aged 26.

He left the property to his niece, Hester Coghill, who was the wife of Moore, Earl Of Charleville Forest, near Tullamore.’

"The house was sold to a man who set up a linen mill, which did well for some time, but when the owner ran into difficulties he sold the lead from the roof and the house eventually fell."

One of those associated with the linen mill was a weaver, Patrick McCullen, John's great-great-grandfather.

"The four people depicted in the panels are John De Cockerham, a Cistercian monk from the 1300’s, Lady Hestor Coghill, Patrick McCullen, who was born in 1787 and lived at Beamore from 1810 to 1860, and my aunt, historian Mary McCullen".

John says the four panels will form part of an installation to be erected somewhere on the land where the tree stood for all those years.