Dysart, An Díseart, Co. Westmeath

An Díseart · Co. Westmeath

A hermit's name on a crossroads above Lough Ennell, five miles south-west of Mullingar.

Dysart in Westmeath is a small place with an old name. An Díseart in Irish - from díseart, the same Latin desertum that gives English its desert. In early Christian Ireland a díseart was a hermitage, a place a monk withdrew to be alone with God. There are dozens of Dysarts and Diserts on the map of Ireland for that reason. St Colman is said to have founded an abbey here, later a house of Conventual Franciscans, and there are still some remains of an old church and a cemetery in the parish. Whatever the first hermit built is long under the fields. The name is the thing that lasted.

What is here now is a crossroads village on the R391, five miles (about eight kilometres) south-west of Mullingar and set back from the eastern side of Lough Ennell, on the old road that ran on down to Kilbeggan. A chapel, a national school, two pubs and a handful of houses. There is no museum, no marked monastic ruin to walk up to, no big house open to the public. In 1837 the parish held just over a thousand people across four thousand acres of what the old topographers called exceedingly fertile land, bog and limestone; the village itself is a fraction of that now.

Most visitors who pass through are headed for the lake - for the trout fishing on Ennell, for Belvedere House and Gardens on the south shore, for Lilliput across the water where Swift stayed with the Rochforts and borrowed the placename. Use Dysart as a pin on the map for that country, not as a destination on its own. Have a pint in one of the two pubs, ask where the old graveyard is, and drive on to the lake.

Population

Well under 200 in the village (the wider parish held 1,020 in 1837)

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

Chapel, school and two pubs around one junction

Founded

Name from díseart, an early Christian hermitage; medieval parish in the diocese of Meath

Coords

53.4722° N, 7.4589° 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 name

Díseart - a hermit's cell.

An Díseart comes from the Latin desertum, the same root as desert. In early Christian Ireland a díseart was a place a monk went to be alone with God. St Colman is said to have founded an abbey here. The name on the road sign is most of what is left of it.

Stories & lore → 02 The lake

Lough Ennell, just to the east.

Dysart sits back from the eastern side of Lough Ennell, on the old Mullingar to Kilbeggan road. The lake is what brings most people this way - the fishing, Belvedere House on the far shore, and Lilliput, where Jonathan Swift stayed and from which the small people in Gulliver's Travels took their name.

Stories & lore → 03 The village

A chapel, a school, two pubs.

That is the centre of it. A nineteenth-century Catholic chapel, a national school, two village pubs and a scatter of houses around a junction on the R391. Mullingar is eight kilometres north-east for everything else.

Walks & outings →

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 village pubs

Rural Westmeath locals

Two local pubs at the crossroads

Dysart has two pubs at its centre and that is the honest count. They are village locals, not destination bars - a pint, a fire, whatever match is on. For a wider choice of bars, music and food, Mullingar is eight kilometres up the road.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

The hermitage in the name

An Díseart

Díseart is one of the oldest place-elements in Ireland - a hermitage or hermit's retreat, taken from the Latin desertum, a solitary place. It marks somewhere an early Christian monk went to live alone or with a small handful of companions, away from the bigger monastic settlements. St Colman is the name attached to the abbey said to have stood here, which by the later medieval period was a house of Conventual Franciscans. There are Dysarts and Diserts scattered across the island, and most of them, like this one, have lost almost all visible trace of the original cell. There are remains of an old church and a cemetery in the parish; the rest is under grass.

A war depot taken, lost and taken again

The island fort of 1641

One of the islands belonging to Dysart was fortified by the Irish at the close of the civil war of 1641 and made one of their chief depositories. It was taken by the English under terms, then re-taken by the Irish, who made the English garrison prisoners, before it finally surrendered to a superior force. It is the kind of small, vicious episode that the bigger histories skip and that the lake islands of the midlands are full of. Nobody has put up a sign.

Jonathan Swift on Lough Ennell

Lilliput across the water

Jonathan Swift was a guest of the Rochforts at the south end of Lough Ennell in the 1720s, at a spot the family called Lilliput. The story local to the lake, and not seriously contested, is that Swift took the name with him when he sat down to write Gulliver's Travels and turned it into the kingdom of tiny people. The Lilliput shore is across the water from Dysart, signposted now as the Lilliput Adventure Centre. If you are in Dysart with an hour to spare, the drive around to Lilliput and back along the lake is the local outing.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The lakeshore at Lilliput Across the lake from Dysart, the Lilliput amenity area gives you the only easy public access to the Ennell shoreline on this side. Short walks along the water, a beach, and the Swift connection. The drive round from the village is the outing as much as the walk.

Short shore walksdistance

30-60 minutestime

Belvedere House and Gardens On the south-eastern shore of Lough Ennell, signposted off the N52 from Mullingar. The Rochfort mansion, its walled garden, the Jealous Wall folly and miles of lakeside paths. The proper day out from a Dysart base. Paid admission, open most of the year.

160 acres of groundsdistance

Half a daytime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Ennell shore greens up and the fishing season gets going. Belvedere is at its best as the gardens come on. Quiet roads.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings on the lake, Lilliput busy with families and watersports, Belvedere in full leaf. The best window for using Dysart as a lakeside base.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Trout fishing and good light on the water. The crowds thin after the schools go back.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and bog roads. The village pubs keep going, but most lake attractions wind down. Come for the quiet, not the activity.

◐ 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.

Looking for the abbey

The name promises a hermitage and the records mention St Colman's abbey, but there is no standing monastic ruin to visit. What survives is the remains of an old church and a graveyard in the parish, not a heritage site. Adjust expectations before you go hunting.

Treating Dysart as a destination

It is a crossroads with a chapel, a school and two pubs. The reason to be here is Lough Ennell - the fishing, Belvedere, Lilliput. Pin the village, point the car at the lake.

Getting there.

By car

On the R391, five miles (about eight kilometres) south-west of Mullingar on the old Kilbeggan road. From the M6 motorway come off near Rochfortbridge or Kilbeggan and head north on local roads. Mullingar is the nearest town for fuel, food and shopping.

By bus

No regular village service. Mullingar is the nearest bus stop with Dublin and Athlone connections; Local Link covers the rural parts of the county.

By train

Nearest station is Mullingar (about 15 minutes by car) on the Dublin to Sligo line.

By air

Dublin Airport is around 90 minutes by car via the M4 and M6.