Westport

Market town and seaport in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland; population (2002) 5,300. Westport is situated on Clew Bay, 20 km/12 mi southwest of Castlebar, and is a tourist centre for the Connemara region and Achill Island, and a centre for salmon and trout fishing. Clothing and pharmaceuticals are manufactured, and there is a printing industry. The town was planned by the English architect James Wyatt in 1780.

Westport House, a Georgian mansion designed about 1730 with later 18th-century additions, has been restored and is open to the public.

Croagh Patrick (765 m/2,510 ft), 10 km/6 mi west of Westport, a quartzite cone-shaped mountain, is a site of pilgrimage in July. Legend has it that St Patrick fasted and prayed on the mountain for 40 days in 441.

Westport

Town in Fairfield County, southwest Connecticut; population (1990) 24,400. It is situated at the mouth of the Saugatuck River, 14 km/9 mi west-southwest of Bridgeport. An affluent residential town known for its artists' and writers' colony, it has some light industry, including the manufacture of toys, hardware, plastics, and soap. Westport, which includes the old fishing port of Saugatuck and Greens Farms, was a smugglers' haven during the American Revolution and was invaded twice by the British. Sherwood Island State Park is on the coast.

Westport

Former town, now a residential, commercial, and institutional district of Kansas City, Missouri. It lies 6 km/4 mi south of the Missouri River. Historically, Westport competed with Independence as the main supply point for westbound travellers on the Santa Fe Trail. To the north, on the river, was Westport Landing, a fur trade post established in the 1820s; this became the town of Kansas in 1838, and a city in 1853. Westport remained independent of Kansas City until 1897.

The Battle of Westport was fought on October 22–23 1864, 5 km/3 mi to the south-southwest; Confederate troops under Sterling Price, despite taking hilltop positions, were forced into a retreat toward Arkansas by much larger Union forces under Alfred Pleasonton.

Westport

Town in Essex County, northeast New York; population (1990) 1,400. It is situated on the west shore of Lake Champlain, 39 km/24 mi north of Ticonderoga. It lies in a lumber producing region on the east edge of the Adirondack Mountains.