Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

Near a bridging point on the Camlin River. Ballinalee is derived from Béal Átha na Lao which means the 'mouth of the ford of the calves' (Bradley et al. 1985, 12). The settlement was established in 1618 at the initiative of Oliver St John, from whom it received its name St Johnstown (McNamee 1954, 230). In 1627, under the conditions of the 'Charter of Johnstowne', which was granted by King Charles I, Walter Lecky was obliged to 'build a house upon his portion of the eighty acres allotted for the corporation’ (ibid.). This obligation does not appear to have been followed through because in 1630 John Kennedy was ordered by the Crown to build ‘a castle and bawn in the corporations of St. John's Town, as Walter Lecky was to have done' (Cal. S.P. Ire. 1625-32, 535). The town was granted the right to hold a weekly market and two fairs and to send two members to the Irish parliament until the Act of Union in 1800 (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 31). It was described in 1682 by Nicholas Dowdall as 'the antientest Corporation in the County called by the name of St Johnstown antiently called Belanelee, signifying calves. It is governed by a Soveraigne and twelve Burgesses' (Gillespie and Moran 1991, 210).
The Down Survey (1654-6) map of Clonbroney parish depicts the town as a linear settlement facing onto a road running from a bridge (LF009-023006-) to its W towards the church (LF009-023012-) of Kiltenemedron to its E. The settlement consists of nine substantial dwellings - five on the N side of the road and four on the S side. A larger building, within an enclosure or bawn, is depicted on the S side between the first and second dwellings. It may be the ‘castle and bawn’ (see LF009-022----, LF009-022001-) noted above.
The location of the settlement on the Down Survey map does not tie in with the area identified by Bradley et al. (1985, 12-14, Fig. 2), which is the present village. It is orientated on a N-S axis, extending to the S from Ballinalee Bridge. The Down Survey map suggests that the initial settlement was located between the village and Soran Bridge to its W. However, archaeological testing in 2004 (Halpin 2007, 250) in the fields to the E of the bridge and to the S of the road revealed no evidence of any settlement of 17th-century date.
Archaeological excavations in 1996, at a proposed residential site within the zone identified by Bradley et al. (1985 Fig. 2), to the S of a burial ground (LF009-023002-) on the W side of the village exposed linear features (LF009-023005-), including a trench (L c. 24m) that supported wooden stakes or posts. These features may have been the remnants of post-medieval fences that could possibly have been related to the 17th-century settlement (Carroll 1997, 72). Further archaeological testing to the N of the burial ground in 2007, prior to the construction of an amenity centre, also revealed a number of possible post-medieval features (LF009-023007-), including the possible foundation trench of a structure and the foundations of a wall. The latter features may also have been associated with the 17th-century settlement (Egan 2010, 303). A school (LF009-023008-), market-house (LF009-023009-), a tannery (LF009-023010-) and an inn (LF009-023011-) are associated.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 1 August 2013