Place:Westport, Oughaval, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Westport (historically anglicised as Cahernamart) is a town in County Mayo in Ireland. It is at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Ireland. Westport is a tourist destination and scores highly for quality of life. It won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition three times in 2001, 2006 and 2008. In 2012 it won the Best Place to Live in Ireland competition run by The Irish Times.

Westport is designated as a heritage town, and is one of only a few planned towns in Ireland. The design for the town was commissioned in the 1780s by the John Browne of Westport House. The town centre was laid-out in the Georgian architectural style, and incorporates the Carrow Beg river into the design composition. This provides for tree lined promenades (known as The Mall) and several stone bridges.

The pilgrimage mountain of Croagh Patrick, known locally as "the Reek", lies some 10 km west of the town near the villages of Murrisk and Lecanvey. The mountain forms the backdrop to the town.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Name

Westport originates and gets its name, in Irish, from a 16th-century castle - Cathair na Mart (meaning "the stone fort of the beeves" or "the city of the fairs") - and surrounding settlement, belonging to the powerful local seafaring Ó Máille clan, who controlled the Clew Bay area, then known as Umaill.

Development

The original village of Cathair na Mart existed somewhere around what is now the front (east) lawn of Westport House. It had a high street, alleys down to the river and a population of around 700. A small port also existed at the mouth of the Carrowbeg river. Roads lead from the village to the west (West Road), the south (Sandy Hill Road) and the east (Old Paddock Road). The town was moved to its present site in the 1780s by the Browne family of Westport House to make way for their gardens and was renamed Westport.^[1]

Westport is designated as a heritage town and is unusual in Ireland in that it is one of only a few planned towns in the country. A feature of his town plan is the tree-lined boulevard, the Mall, built on the Carrowbeg River. The design for the town was commissioned in the 1780s by the John Browne of the nearby stately home, Westport House, as a place for his workers and tenants to live. John Browne cleared the original village of Cahernamart, that had 700 inhabitants, to make way for his gardens at Westport House.

The current town centre was originally designed by William Leeson in 1780, in the Georgian architectural style. Its layout follows the medieval principles of urban design introduced by the Normans in the 13th century. A particular feature is the incorporation of the river into the composition, contained for two blocks by low stone walls producing, on each side of the river, tree lined promenades (The Mall) with several stone bridges over the river Carrow Beg.

James Wyatt finished Westport House, the stately home of the Marquess of Sligo and designed its dining room. Westport House was originally built by Richard Cassels (also known as Richard Castle), the German architect, in the 1730s, near the site of the original Ó Máille Castle.

Since the late 20th century, Westport has expanded with several new housing estates. Some of these include Springfield, the Carrowbeg Estate, Horkans Hill, Cedar Park, Fairways, Knockranny Village and Sharkey Hill.

Westport House

Designed by the architects Richard Cassels and James Wyatt in the 18th century, Westport House is situated in a parkland setting with a lake, terraces, gardens and views overlooking Clew Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, Achill, Clare Island and Ireland's Holy Mountain, Croagh Patrick.

In October 2015 it was revealed that the Westport House Estate was in the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) for debts secured on the 380-acre estate, but not the house, for almost 10 million Euros. In January 2017, it was announced that a local family had purchased the house and grounds.

In 2007 the privately owned estate received a grant of 1.34 million Euros for repairs to Westport House, from the state funded Heritage Council.

The previous owners, the Browne family, are direct descendants of wealthy slave plantation owners in Jamaica, Howe Peter Browne (2nd Marquess of Sligo) and his wife Lady Sligo (Hester Catherine De Burgh), as well as the 16th-century pirate, Grace O'Malley, Queen of Umaill.

An exhibition at Westport House styles Howe Peter Browne as 'Champion of the Slaves', a suggestion that one historian refers to as 'hyperbole', pointing out that "Browne benefited from slavery from the cradle to the grave and did not free his slaves until the institution of slavery was abolished by an act of parliament" and that Howe Peter Browne also claimed, and received, substantial compensation from the British government for the loss of his slaves.^[2]

The original house was built by Colonel John Browne, a Jacobite, who was at the Siege of Limerick, and his wife Maude Bourke. Maude Bourke was Ní Mháille's great-great granddaughter. The house then did not have the lake or a dam, and the tide rose and fell against the walls.

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