Beaubec is the site of a medieval monastic farm associated with the French Cistercian foundation of De Bello Becco (Beaubec) Normandy. Beaubec is located in the townland of Bey More, south of Drogheda in county Meath. This excavation is funded through a generous grant from the FBD Trust and administered through the Kilsharvan Community Council. We are grateful to the landowner, John McCullen, for permission to excavate at this site. The excavation begins on July 1.
Volunteers and visitors are welcome. Contact matthew.stout@dcu.ie
Beaubec is ideally located to throw light on the involvement of the Cistercians in commercial development and international maritime trade in the Boyne valley during the medieval period.It lies 5km south of the medieval walled town and port of Drogheda within the medieval Liberty of Meath. A stream runs by the site on a north-east axis to join the river Boyne at Mornington. This area was at the centre of major land grants of Anglo-Norman sub-infeudation and near Duleek which was the caput of one of De Lacy’s seignorial manors. It lay at the mouth of the River Boyne which was an important means of transport between the interior of Meath and the town of Drogheda at the river’s lowest bridging point. Drogheda became one of the principal ports of medieval Ireland through which the agricultural and manufactured produce of Ireland, was exported. The main aims of the Beaubec project is to firstly, uncover the structural remains and layout of the thirteenth century Cistercian foundation of De Bello Becco (Beaubec) Normandy at Bey More, Co. Meath; secondly, retrieve material evidence for external contacts in the form of imports such as for example Normandy Ware and thirdly, identify the kind of agricultural produce on their monastic grange, which they were exporting and the types of goods imported into the Irish house.
Beaubec Excavations 