Westport 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.
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.
The famous 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.
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.
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.
Demographics
Between the censuses of 2011 and 2016, the town showed a limited growth from 5,543 to 6,198 inhabitants.
Culture
People from Westport town are traditionally known as Coveys. Some decades ago the Covey dialect still existed and was unintelligible to outsiders. For example, the Covey word for a woman was a “doner”.
Matt Molloy of the Chieftains has a pub and music venue on Bridge Street.
Entertainment
Westport Town Hall Theatre was established in the early 1900s and renovated and refurbished in later years. The town hall hosts events, artists and musicians, local theatre groups and children’s puppet shows.
The hall overlooks the Octagon monument at the centre of Westport town. The venue has been an integral part of the town for decades where many local and surrounding townspeople visited for town dances, Irish dancing lessons, local craft fairs and other performing arts.
Tourism
Westport is County Mayo’s premier tourist destination, visited by holiday makers from all over the world and Ireland.
In 1842, the English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, visited Westport and wrote of the town:
“The most beautiful view I ever saw in the world. It forms an event in one’s life to have seen that place so beautiful that is it, and so unlike other beauties that I know of. Were such beauties lying on English shores it would be a world’s wonder perhaps, if it were on the Mediterranean or Baltic, English travellers would flock to it by hundreds, why not come and see it in Ireland!”
Visitors visit Westport for the scenery, the pubs and restaurants in the town, blue flag beaches, and Croagh Patrick. Its proximity to Connemara, Achill, Clew Bay and Croagh Patrick, and its hotels and guest houses, make it a base for holidaymakers to tour the region.
Westport House and its Pirate Adventure Park attracts families. Westport has an 18-hole golf course and nearby a 9-hole course.
In January 2008, Westport became Google Earth‘s first fully 3D town.
International ties
Westport is twinned with Plougastel-Daoulas in Brittany, France and with Limavady, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The link with the latter has its roots in the 1980s and the official ratification and twinning ceremony took place in 2002.
Since 1982, Westport also has a partnership with the town of Aror, Kenya, and the people of Westport have contributed to improving the infrastructure of Aror.
