What is recorded here

Ballymahon is a historic market town on the north bank of the Inny River in County Longford, Ireland, where a wooden bridge crossed the water as early as 1682. The 1620 land grant to James Mc William Ferrall named its castle, town and lands, while the Civil Survey recorded a mill and ruined castle houses scattered among chimney buildings. Ruined houses along Green Lane may be the oldest structures still standing, and the cluster of dwellings marked on the 1655-6 Down Survey map suggests the bridge has anchored local life for centuries.

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

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