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HORSELEAP

CO. WESTMEATH · IE

Horseleap
Baile Átha an Urchair, Co. Westmeath

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 07 / 07

Baile Átha an Urchair · Co. Westmeath

A village named after a horse clearing a drawbridge, split down the middle by a county line, with the one pub in Ireland that sits in two counties at once.

Horseleap is a name first and a village second. You will pass through it in under a minute on the old N6, now the R446, between Moate and Kilbeggan, and if you know the story you will slow down, and if you do not you will not register the place at all. That is fine. The story, and the line on the map, are the reasons to stop.

Sometime in the 1190s the de Lacys, the Norman family who held the lordship of Meath, built a motte-and-bailey here on the edge of their territory, against the Mac Geoghegans whose country began on the next ridge. The motte is dated to 1192 and still sits at the edge of the village, partly slumped but plainly readable. The legend goes that a de Lacy, chased home by the Mac Geoghegans, found the drawbridge raised and put his horse over the moat to save his neck. The English name has stuck for eight centuries. The Irish name, Baile Átha an Urchair, the town of the ford of the cast, predates the Normans entirely. The old fort was called Ardnurcher, and the place was important enough to be a chartered borough by 1235 and to give its name to a battle in 1329 between the Butlers and the Mac Geoghegans.

The other thing worth knowing is on the Main Street. The Offaly-Westmeath county boundary runs straight through the middle of the village, and through the middle of the pub. Paddy Ryan's is widely reckoned to be the only pub in Ireland still sitting across a county line, the bar in one county and a few feet of the lounge in the other. There is a green with a twelve-foot bronze prancing horse on it, the subject of a tall tale about Ferrari and Eddie Irvine that does not survive contact with the facts but is told with a straight face anyway.

Come for five minutes or for one pint. Walk the rise where the motte is, stand with one foot in each county outside the pub, and read the name properly.

Founded

Norman motte, 1192; medieval borough by 1235

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

A leap, a moat, a place-name.

The English name comes from a 12th-century scrap with the Mac Geoghegans. A de Lacy got chased home, found his drawbridge up, and put his horse over the moat. The Irish name, Baile Átha an Urchair, the town of the ford of the cast, has nothing to do with horses at all.

Stories & lore → 02 The border

One village, two counties.

The Offaly-Westmeath line runs straight through the middle of Horseleap. Paddy Ryan's pub on the Main Street straddles it - reckoned to be the only pub left in Ireland sitting in two counties at once. Order a pint in Westmeath, drink it in Offaly.

The pub → 03 The road

The N6 went elsewhere.

Horseleap was a coaching halt on the road from Dublin to Galway. The M6 motorway took the through traffic. What is left is a strung-out village along the old line, the R446, quiet most of the day, with a clear view of where it used to be busy.

Getting there →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Paddy Ryan's

The border pub, community local

Pub & shop, Main Street

The landmark. The Offaly-Westmeath county line runs straight through the building, which makes it - by local reckoning - the only pub left in Ireland sitting in two counties at once. Front and back bar, a shop and off-licence that serves the country between Kilbeggan, Clara and Moate, and a beer garden with pool tables out the back. Taken over in 2023 by David and Nichola McGuinness, one from the Offaly side and one from the Westmeath side, which is exactly the right pedigree for a pub on the line. The twelve-foot bronze horse stands on the green outside the door.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

How the village got its English name

The leap

The tradition is consistent across the old topographical accounts: a member of the de Lacy family, fleeing a Mac Geoghegan raid, reached his castle here to find the drawbridge already up. Rather than turn and fight, he set his horse at the moat and cleared it. The English name, Horseleap, fixed itself to the place and never let go. The Irish name, Baile Átha an Urchair, is older and unrelated, and the old fort name Ardnurcher was sometimes read as the fort of the slaughter or the fort of the cast. The village's older anglicised names - Ballanurcher, Athnurcher, Ardnurcher - all carry the Irish, not the horse.

1192, on the frontier of Meath

The motte and the tower house

The de Lacys held the lordship of Meath after the Norman invasion and threw up a chain of mottes along its western edge to hold the line against the Irish lordships beyond. The Horseleap motte is one of them, dated 1192. It is partly damaged now but still the size and shape it was meant to be: a flat-topped mound built fast in earth and timber. Nearby stands a well-preserved 16th-century tower house, raised later by the Mac Geoghegans, the very family the motte had been built against - the frontier had moved, and so had the hands that held it. Ardnurcher was a chartered borough by 1235, and in 1329 the Battle of Ardnurcher was fought here between the forces of Thomas Butler and William Mac Geoghegan.

A tall tale on the village green

The Ferrari horse

On the green stands a twelve-foot bronze prancing horse, erected in 2000. The story locals will tell you is that Ferrari cast it for the Formula One driver Eddie Irvine, that it was shipped to the North as a gift, that it was never handed over when Irvine left for Jaguar, and that a Horseleap farmer buying cattle in Tyrone heard about it and brought it home. It is a good story. The motorsport journalist Joe Saward took it apart years ago, and Ferrari, asked directly, said they knew nothing about it. The horse is real and the leap legend is older. The Ferrari part is folklore, and the village seems happy enough to keep telling it.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The motte and Main Street There is no waymarked trail, but the village rewards a slow walk. Start at the green and the bronze horse, take in the line of the old N6, find the Norman motte at the edge of the village, and pass the Church of Ireland church (Ardnurcher, c. 1810, a plain hall-and-tower Gothic on the site of a medieval abbey). Wear boots if you go near the motte - the ground can be soft.

1.5 km loopdistance

30 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The midlands turn green and the old road is quiet. A good time to wander the motte and stand on the county line without traffic.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Longest evenings, the beer garden at Paddy Ryan's open, and the easiest light for the green and the bronze horse.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Soft midland light, fewer cars, the pub the warm centre of the place as the evenings draw in.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and the motte ground will be wet. The pub keeps going. There is not much else to do here in the rain.

◐ 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

Horseleap is a strung-out roadside village, not a destination in its own right. There is a pub, a church, a primary school, a garden centre and a petrol station. Come for the story, the motte and the border pub, and do not expect more than that. It is honest about what it is.

The motorway fly-by

Most people pass within a kilometre of Horseleap on the M6 and never know the place exists. If you want the leap, the line and the pub, you have to leave the motorway and double back on the old road.

Taking the Ferrari story at face value

The bronze horse is real and worth a look. The tale that Ferrari cast it for Eddie Irvine is folklore, debunked years ago. Enjoy it as a yarn, not as history.

Getting there.

By car

On the old N6, now the R446, between Moate (8 km west) and Kilbeggan (6 km east). The M6 motorway runs parallel a kilometre south - leave at junction 5 (Kilbeggan) or junction 6 (Moate) and double back on the old road.

By bus

No regular service stops in the village. The Bus Éireann Dublin-Galway expressways use the motorway. Nearest pickups are Kilbeggan and Moate; Local Link covers the rural roads around them.

By train

No station - the line through Horseleap closed to passengers in 1947. Athlone (about 30 km west) and Tullamore (about 25 km south) are the nearest railheads.