Heritage Week continues all over Westmeath this weekend (August 24-26 ), with the highlight being the Tyrrellspass Festival, winner of the best event award last year.
The three-day event will celebrate the 600-year history of Tyrrellspass with a parade, ceili, banquet, exhibitions, and fair day.
Elsewhere history buffs will be well served with free, guided walks of the county’s two, highly significant prehistoric sites - Uisneach and Frewin hills.
Ruth Illingworth will lead the walk at the more famous Uisneach, meeting at the car park for 1.45pm, while Dr David McGuinness and Prof Michael Harty will lead the walk on Frewin from 2.45pm.
Access to this hill on the far side of Lough Owel will be from the car park halfway between Walshestown and Bunbrosna, and will be weather permitting.
Mullingar has hosted ecclesiastical tours of both All Saints and the Cathedral all week, and will continue until Sunday, and an exhibition of photographs of Mullingar over the years can be seen in the County Buildings.
In Belvedere on Sunday, the life and times of one of its former owners, the Himalayan explorer Lt Col Charles Howard Bury, will be illuminated at 2pm and 4pm.
In Athlone the Masonic Hall on Northgate Street has had its doors opened for the week, and will be available for one more day tomorrow, as will the Goldsmith exhibition in the Aidan Heavey library
Heritage Week ran from Saturday August 18, and finishes on Sunday, and is co-ordinated in Ireland by the Heritage Council in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
It is part of European Heritage Days, which is celebrated in over 46 countries across Europe.
The aim of the week is to promote awareness of our built, natural, and cultural heritage thereby encouraging its conservation and preservation.
This year’s extensive list with over 1,200 events planned nationwide promises to be even better.
Further information on Heritage Week and a full outline of events taking place in County Westmeath is available on www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/servicesa-z/heritage/
