Mullingar

Mullingar grew around an Anglo-Norman castle near a mill and a ford on the River Brosna. The medieval borough had a market, a parish church and religious houses, and its leading families held estates in the surrounding country. Unlike many Irish towns, it was not reshaped by an early seventeenth-century plantation, and several old families retained their place until the wars of that century.

The castle was still garrisoned in 1641. Half a century later, during the Williamite war, the old motte formed part of the town's defences; in 1691 it served as a position for cannon. A fire in 1747 destroyed much of Mullingar, after which the town was rebuilt. Its market remained a centre of exchange for the surrounding countryside of Westmeath.