Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

On the N bank of the Inny River, at a bridging point. A land grant in 1620 to James Mc William Ferrall included the 'castle [LF027-003004-], town and lands of Ballymahan' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 466). A cluster of houses is depicted on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Rathcline barony (NLI, MS 719) on the N bank of the river to the E of a bridge (LF027-003003-). The town was described in 1682 as 'the market town called Ballymahon where there is a wooden bridge over the river' (Whelan 2001, 6). The Civil Survey records a mill (LF027-003005-) and the ‘ruines of a castle with some chimney houses and Irish creats, alsoe some chimney houses with Irish creats dispersed in several places' (Simington 1961, vol. 10, 48). The ruined houses along the Green Lane may be the oldest buildings in the town (Whelan 2001, 6). Archaeological test excavations prior to the construction of a housing development to the rear of the buildings at the SW side of Main Street in 2005 (Ó Donnchadha 2005), and subsequent unlicenced monitoring of the groundworks (Doherty and Doherty 2005) yielded no archaeological features or artifacts.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 31 July 2013

References

Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I - Irish patent rolls of James I: facsimile of the Irish record commissioners' calendar prepared prior to 1830, with foreword by M.C. Griffith (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1966)

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1961 The Civil Survey A.D. 1654–56. Vol. X: Miscellanea, including a map showing changes to the county and barony boundaries since the Civil Survey (1654–56), 10 vols. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

NLI, MS 719 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey of Co. Longford attested by W. Petty under date 1657. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 22 maps with accompanying terriers, 1786-7. Dublin.

Doherty, B. and Doherty, R.M. 2005 Archaeological monitoring report for a housing development at Ballymahon, Co. Longford. Dominic Delaney and associates. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Licence no. 05E0062.

Whelan, P. 2001 Ballymahon and its people. Longford. Turner Print Group.

Ó Donnchadha, B. 2005 Archaeological testing in Ballymahon, Co. Longford on behalf of Heavy Architects Ltd. Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services Ltd. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Licence no. 05E0062.