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BELLEWSTOWN

CO. MEATH · IE

Bellewstown
Baile an Bheallaigh, Co. Meath

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Baile an Bheallaigh · Co. Meath

A hill, a racecourse three centuries old, and a view to the Mournes. The horses are the reason; the light is the bonus.

Bellewstown is the races and the Hill of Crockafotha, and not much else - which is exactly the point. It is a small place, under five hundred people in the last full census, strung along a rise of high ground about 11 km south of Drogheda. There is a primary school, a Catholic church, a pub, a golf course, and a racecourse that is older than the United States. Most of the year nothing happens. For one week in July the whole hill comes alive.

The name belongs to the Bellews, an Anglo-Norman family who held this land from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth. Their castle, built in the 1470s by Richard Bellew, is a ruin now in the grounds of Bellewstown House, and the shell of a medieval parish church sits in the same farmyard. The hill itself was lived on long before the Bellews - the surrounding townlands carry cist burials, a standing stone, ring ditches and ringforts, the usual quiet evidence that high dry ground was always worth holding.

But the reason to come is the racing. The first record is from August 1726, and in 1780 George Tandy - a former Mayor of Drogheda and brother of Napper Tandy of the United Irishmen - talked King George III into sponsoring a race here, His Majesty's Plate, worth £100. That is when a hillside with horses on it became a racecourse. The track is a tight left-handed mile and a furlong, the gradient changes under you, and the going is usually firm because the water runs off the hill. No two cards play the same. The terrain has a vote.

Come for the festival in early July and Bellewstown is one of the great small race meetings in Ireland - country racing, a hilltop, a view, and a crowd that knows the form. Come any other week and it is a quiet rural village with a pub and a long view. Both versions are honest. Just know which one you are arriving for.

Population

~499 (2011)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Racing recorded 1726; Bellew family seat from the 13th century

Coords

53.6739° N, 6.3531° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The hill

A racecourse on the Hill of Crockafotha since 1726.

The first written record of racing here is in the Dublin Gazette in August 1726 - nearly three hundred years of horses on a windy hilltop 11 km south of Drogheda. The festival still runs the first week of July.

Stories & lore → 02 The view

Mountains of Mourne north, the Irish Sea east.

High ground does the work here. From the course on race day you look north to the Mournes and east to the sea. It is the best free view in this corner of Meath, and most people only see it with a betting slip in hand.

Walks & outings → 03 The family

Named for the Anglo-Norman Bellew family.

The Bellews were the dominant landowners from the 13th to the 17th century. Their ruined 15th-century castle and a medieval parish church still sit in the grounds of Bellewstown House. The village wears their name.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Bellewstown Inn

The one pub, and the social centre of the place

Village pub, in the heart of the village

Bellewstown has one pub, and this is it. The Inn is the gathering point for the village - food, sport on the screen, and traditional music sessions that the locals are rightly fond of. On race week it is the obvious place to land before or after the hill. The rest of the year it is a proper country local: you go in for one and the conversation keeps you. Note: directory listings sometimes file the Inn under Louth, but the village sits in Meath.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Older than the republic across the water

Racing since 1726

The first written record of racing at Bellewstown appears in the Dublin Gazette and the Weekly Courier in August 1726. That makes it one of the oldest racecourses in Ireland, and certainly the oldest thing the village has. What happened on the hill before 1726 is silence, but the high ground was a natural gallop and the horses were almost certainly there before anyone wrote it down. The festival still runs in the first week of July - in 2026 it is Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th - with a left-handed mile-and-a-furlong track and meetings also in April, August and September.

George Tandy and a royal £100, 1780

His Majesty's Plate

In 1780, George Tandy - a former Mayor of Drogheda and brother of the firebrand Napper Tandy of the United Irishmen - persuaded King George III to sponsor a race at Bellewstown. It was called His Majesty's Plate and carried a purse of £100, a serious sum at the time. The royal patronage is the moment the hill stopped being a casual gallop and became a fixture worth travelling to. There is a fine irony in a brother of Napper Tandy securing the King's money for a Meath hillside, and the locals enjoy it.

A family seat from the 1470s

The Bellews and the ruined castle

Bellewstown takes its name from the Bellew family, Anglo-Norman landowners who dominated this district from the thirteenth century until the seventeenth. Richard Bellew built a castle here between 1472 and 1479 as a defensive stronghold. It is a ruin now, standing with the shell of a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century parish church in the grounds of Bellewstown House. Neither is a formal visitor attraction - they sit on private farmland - but they are why the village is called what it is.

Crockafotha

The hilltop and the view

The Hill of Crockafotha is high enough to catch the weather and the view. On a clear race day you can see the Mountains of Mourne to the north and the Irish Sea to the east. The gradient is what makes the racing here distinctive - the course climbs and falls, the going stays firm because the rain drains off, and the hill quietly decides the result. It is also why Bellewstown feels different from the flat Boyne Valley around it. You are standing on the high spot.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The racecourse hill On a non-race day the high ground around the course is the walk - the reason anyone built a racetrack here is the same reason it is worth a stroll. Mournes to the north, the sea to the east, the Boyne Valley laid out below. Mind that the racecourse itself is private and fenced on meeting days; on quiet days the lanes around the hill give you the view without trespassing.

Short, on the hilldistance

30-45 minutestime

Bellewstown Golf Club A parkland eighteen-hole course on the hill, par 72. Not a walk in the heritage sense, but it is the other way locals spend time on this high ground, and the views from the upper holes are the same ones the horses get.

18 holes, par 72distance

A roundtime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet. There is an April race meeting, but otherwise the village is at rest and there is little to do beyond the view and the pub. Fine if a long quiet hilltop is what you want.

◐ Mind yourself

Summer

Jun-Aug

The reason to come. The Bellewstown Festival runs the first week of July - country racing at its best, a hilltop crowd, the whole village awake. Book a Drogheda bed early; there is no hotel in the village. An August meeting too.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

A September fixture and softer light on the hill. The crowds are thinner than July and the racing is no less good. A fine quiet time to see the place.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Nothing on. Short days, wind off the high ground, the racecourse shut. The pub keeps going. Only worth it if you are passing and curious.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a town

Bellewstown is a village of a few hundred people with one pub, one church, a school and a racecourse. There is no main street of shops, no hotel, no row of cafes. That is not a failing - it is what the place is. Set your expectations to hilltop hamlet, not Boyne Valley tourist town.

Turning up at the castle

The ruined Bellewstown Castle and the medieval church are on private farmland in the grounds of Bellewstown House, not a maintained visitor site. Admire the story; do not go climbing fences for it.

Coming on a random Tuesday

Outside race week and the golf course there is genuinely little to do here. The village rewards a visit timed to a meeting. Pick a race day and the hill earns every word of its reputation; pick a wet weekday in February and you will wonder what the fuss is about.

Getting there.

By car

From the M1, exit at Julianstown / Drogheda South (Exit 7) onto the R132 toward Drogheda; pass the service station at Gormanston and take the signposted left for Bellewstown, then follow local signs. About 37 km from Dublin city centre, 11 km south of Drogheda.

By bus

No regular village bus service. On race days a McGill coach runs from the bottom of Mary Street in Drogheda to the course (cash fare, leaving about an hour before racing, returning after the last). Otherwise it is a taxi from Drogheda, roughly 15 minutes.

By train

Drogheda station, on the Dublin-Belfast line, is the nearest at about 11 km north. From there a taxi or the race-day coach. There is no station closer.