placenamesBellaugh
Béal Lathaí
Also known as Baylough, Bellaugh’s history on Athlone’s western side includes craft households, a family brewery and railway engineering.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Béal Lathaí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Bellaugh · English · main form
- Bellough · English · main form · local name
Place & story
Households in 1749
Gearóid O’Brien’s study of Bishop Edward Synge’s 1749 census identifies eighteen householders in Belagh, an older spelling associated with Bellaugh. Seven household heads were labourers and six were hatters; the other entries included a shoemaker, ale-seller, weaver and smith. Eight servants were also recorded. These occupations show a community supported by craft work and wage labour, as well as the farming commonly associated with rural Roscommon. [2]
The Robinson brewery at Annsfield
In 1825 Arthur Robinson, a brewer from Fardrum, leased Annsfield from Joseph Sproule for £70 a year. The property, previously called Bellaugh, included a house, offices and garden on four acres. Arthur transferred his interest to his son Arthur John in 1848. Brewing continued into the next decade, but Arthur John was declared insolvent in 1855. O’Brien records that the house was later demolished for the Annesfield Wood housing development. [2]
A railway boundary on Galway Road
A substantial limestone wall along Galway Road preserves a smaller piece of the western Athlone railway landscape. The NIAH dates it to about 1860 and identifies it as a boundary built for the Midland Great Western Railway’s Dublin–Galway route. Its battlement-like coping gives an otherwise practical structure a distinctive outline. The wall is a reminder that railway construction involved durable boundaries and street edges as well as tracks, stations and bridges. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Roscommon
- Barony
- Athlone South
- Civil parish
- Saint Peter's
- Coordinates
- 53.42811, -7.96991 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414618 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bellaugh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Street Wise Athlone – Baylough, 20 July 2022 · Gearóid O’Brien, Westmeath Independent / Athlone Community Radio
- Galway Road railway boundary wall, NIAH 15003065 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.