Ireland Travel Search: Connacht: County Leitrim Tourism Information Directory for Visitors to Ireland


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Ireland > Connacht > County Leitrim

County Leitrim has a nice `out of the way' forgotten feel to it, and is a quiet pleasant region. It is long and narrow, backed by mountains and valleys and facing the sea. It is divided in two by Lough Allen, one of the many lakes along the Shannon River.

It also shares Lough Gill and Lough Melvin with County Sligo, with the lakes in this region teeming with pike, salmon perch and trout - a fisherman's paradise. The area is renowned for walking, either accompanied or solitary, and the mountains around Manorhamilton are a mecca for walkers, reflecting their own isolated and rugged beauty.

Here also the Potato Famine exacted a terrible toll in the 1840s with the population dropping from around 150,000 to less than 40,000 by 1850. Today the population is around 28,000. Many martyrs to the Irish struggle for independence against England came from this area, and it has a turbulent bloody past, as has nearly all of Ireland.

Carrick-on-Shannon (usually just called Carrick) is the capital of this sparsely populated County with cycling, boating and fishing the main visitor activities.

Costello Memorial Chapel is the smallest in Ireland and one of the smallest chapels in the world, and is an enduring and poignant example of one man's love for his wife. It was commissioned by Edward Costello in the memory of his wife Mary Josephine Costello after she died aged 47 in 1877. The chapel was dedicated two years later on April 22, 1879 Mary's remains were interred in a sunken tomb on the left of the entrance. Edward died 12 years later in 1891 and his remains were interred on the right of the entrance. The couple were well respected in Carrick, Edward being a prominent merchant and a person of great kindness and charity. Both coffins, albeit old and crumbling, are still visible behind glass partitions in their burial pits.

Picturesque Parke's Castle was built by one of the planters in the early 17th century, and is located at Fivemilebourne, on the Sligo-Dromahair road beside Lough Gill. Rectangular in shape, it is three stories high with mullioned windows and a set of diamond-shaped chimneys, forming part of one side of a five-sided bawn with large rounded turrets at two corners. The entrance to the bawn is through a passageway in the ground floor of the house. The castle has undergone extensive restoration, both within the castle and the outside buildings leading on to the courtyard.

Dromahair is a very pretty village about 8 miles from Manorhamilton. In the middle of the town are the sparse remains of Breffni Castle, stones from it were used to build another mansion known as the old hall next door in 1630. A very interesting story lies here. The old castle was the chief stronghold of the O'Rourke's and it was from here in 1152 that Devorgilla; wife of Tiernan O'Rourke eloped (at age 44 - tsk tsk) with Dermot MacMurragh. However he was even crueller that Tiernan and she slunk back home very quickly. But, Tiernan was not pleased with Dermot (funny that) and forced Dermot to take to the hills. This led to Dermot's historic alliance with Henry 2nd, and eventually resulted in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. She has a lot to answer for, does Devorgilla!

Nearby to Dromahair is Creevelea Abbey, which was founded in 1508 by Owen O'Rourke and his wife Margaret, and was the last Franciscan friary to be founded in Ireland before the Suppression of the Monasteries. The church has a nave, choir, tower and south transept. The west doorway and the window above it are well preserved, as is also the east window, but the windows in the south transept have long since vanished. The friary was accidentally set ablaze in 1536, and it was unable to be fully restored before it was suppressed five years later. It was still in use in 1574, but its woodwork was again burnt when Bingham took over the friary and used it as stables in 1590. The friars took possession of it again in 1601-2 and the church was repaired again by some Franciscans in 1642, but the Cromwellian's arrived and forced them to leave. It later became the property of a man called Harrison who as a 'rip off' landlord allowed the Friars to return once more (for a substantial rent) and roof the church with thatch, however they probably left finally towards the end of the 17th century. The tower was probably converted into living quarters around this time.

The Sliabh an Iarainn Visitor Centre at Mary Gannon is worth a visit to take in a quick history of the area including the mining of coal and iron, as the Arigna area of Roscommon and the adjacent mountains of County Leitrim were famous for coal and iron mining. Iron and coal has been mined from as early as the 15th century in this area, with coal mining becoming a major industry in the 19th century until the closure of the last coal mines in 1990. The Cavan and Leitrim railway operated by the mines was one of the most remarkable rail systems in Ireland. It ran on a narrow gauge line and linked the Leitrim towns of Drumshanbo, Mohill and Ballinamore. For most of the journey between Drumshanbo and Ballinamore it ran alongside the public road and crossed at a number of bends. It closed in 1959 despite much public protest - another part of a bygone age gone forever.

The Lough Allen area is also the home of the 'Sweat House'. Sweathouses were used as a cure for aches and pains, much the same as a modern sauna. Built of stone with a small opening, a big turf fire would be lit for hours inside. Once it was extremely hot inside, the fire was removed and the person crawled into the sweathouse and sat on a bundle of rushes or straw. When they had sweated enough (or just could not bear it any more!) they ran out and jumped in a nearby stream to cool off. The Visitor centre has a reconstruction of a sweathouse with realistic background and setting, and you can also visit a real sweathouse whilst in the area. (Streams optional).

The Corracloona Megalithic Tomb is a megalithic tomb consisting of a rectangular chamber and what appears to be a forecourt to the chamber. The forecourt wall is built using the ancient dry stone building method that did not use mortar. The most unusual feature of this tomb is the stone sealing the entrance to the tomb, at the bottom of which is a small opening - presumably to allow subsequent burials to take place. The tomb is surrounded by the remains of a cairn 60 feet long, and interestingly enough has been excavated, but the results were supposedly never published. Hmmm.

Lough Rynn House An interesting story. An American, Mike O'Flaherty (no prize for his ancestral nationality) saw it advertised in a real estate office in America. He flew out to Ireland and promptly bought it on the spot, and has spent his life now restoring it to its former glory. There is a Bronze Age burial tomb on the grounds and the old castle ruin on the estate was the seat of the Reynolds Clan up to the 17th century. The property was confiscated and given to the Crofton family in 1622 during the Plantation period. The lands were then acquired by the Earls of Leitrim in 1750, and a house was constructed in 1832 by Nathaniel Clements. When his son, William Sydney Clements, succeeded as 3rd Earl of Leitrim, the house became the administrative centre of the vast estate covering 90,000 acres in four counties. A 400 year old oak tree adorns the grounds and there are walled gardens, arboretum, green houses and terraced gardens, and 600 acres of fishable Lough Rinn. It is a wonderful place for lovely walks, especially in summer.

The Tullaghan Stone Cross is an ancient 9th - 10th century stone cross facing the N15 road in the village of Tullaghan. It was moved here to protect it from coastal erosion, and is believed to be part of a long vanished monastery.

Ancient Cloonmorris Church is believed to have been built around 1200AD, and served as an auxiliary to the Augustinian Priory of Mohill. The church has simple but attractive east and south lancet windows, with the moulding on the outside of the east window ends featuring two upturned heads. The plain north doorway was inserted in the 15th century.

Beside the entrance to the graveyard an Ogham Stone has been re-erected, and is the only one of its kind in County Leitrim. All that can be read of the ancient inscription is the name of the person commemorated on the stone: 'Qenuven'' with the other letters all worn away or defaced.





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