Manorhamilton

Manorhamilton was never chartered as a town, but once Sir Frederick Hamilton built the castle (LE007-079001-) a town started to grow around it. In the 1640s some mills are mentioned in connection with it, and the church (LE011-014001-) is 17th century in date. The town had a population of 21 (heads of households) c. 1659 (Pender 1939, 568) and is described as consisting of c. 40 houses in the late 17th century (Logan 1971, 331). The star-shaped fort (LE011-015----) is part of the town and overlooks it on the N side, but it was not built until the 18th century. The town would have been built as a fortified frontier town of the period and like Jamestown (LE031-082----) it could have consisted of properties on either side of a Main Street. This area (dims c. 290m NW-SE; c. 170-c. 220m NE-SW) extending SE from the NE-SW Owenmore River was divided into neat, equally-sized plots as depicted on the 1835 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. It has the Court House at the W end and the Market House near the E end where the original church is also located. Archaeological testing, largely in the vicinity of the castle, has failed to produce any related material, and testing (06E0016) behind properties on the Main St. and at the SE end of the town (10E0113) have not demonstrated occupation from the 17th century (Henry 2009e; Wallace 2013). The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 26 January, 2016