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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
National Heritage Week - County Westmeath Events
At Various venues across County Westmeath · County Westmeath
At Various venues across County Westmeath · County Westmeath
Every August, County Westmeath opens its doors for National Heritage Week - nine days when local historians, archaeologists, heritage groups, and community organisations run free events that rarely appear in tourist brochures. The 2026 programme runs 15 to 23 August across the county, with Mullingar at its centre. This is the kind of week that rewards the curious: you can join a walking tour through streets that have been settled for four millennia, hear a lunch-time lecture on manuscript sources for the county’s history, or take part in a living heritage day in Athlone. It suits families, local history enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to understand a place rather than just pass through it.
The theme for Heritage Week 2026 is “Heritage at Risk” - a prompt for communities to look at what is fragile, what is being lost, and what can still be saved. In Westmeath, that conversation draws on a very deep well.
In Mullingar itself, local historian and author Ruth Illingworth leads two separate tours. The Walking Tour of Old Mullingar covers the town’s history from its early medieval origins through to the nineteenth century, taking in the cathedral, the canal, and the streets that shaped the town. A second tour - the Mullingar Musical Heritage Tour - traces the town’s remarkable musical tradition: from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and the first All-Ireland Fleadh held here, to more recent figures like Joe Dolan and Niall Horan, both sons of Mullingar.
Further south, Connaught Street Heritage Week in Athlone returns with its own packed programme, centring on the west bank community and culminating in a Living Heritage Day on Sunday 23 August. The Westmeath Library and the Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society also host a lecture on sources held at the Royal Irish Academy library in Dublin - accessible to anyone tracing local or family history.
The full county programme is released closer to the date. Events fill up, so check heritageweek.ie regularly once August approaches.
Mullingar is well connected by both road and rail. Irish Rail runs regular services from Dublin Connolly (roughly 70 minutes); the station is a short walk from the town centre. Bus Éireann serves Mullingar from Dublin and Athlone. By car, the N4 from Dublin takes about an hour; parking in the town centre is generally available on the street or at the nearby shopping centre car park. Athlone, where several Heritage Week events also take place, is about 40 minutes south-west on the N55.
Mullingar sits on the Royal Canal and is surrounded by a landscape of lakes, drumlin hills, and early-Christian monuments - Fore Abbey and Belvedere House are both within easy reach for a day out around the county. There is more to see in Mullingar and across Co. Westmeath.
Heading to Various venues across County Westmeath? Westmeath has plenty more to see. Browse the area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.