What is recorded here

Ballylahan means Town of the Broad Ford, yet no street, gate or house marker remains for that town. Jordan de Exeter built his castle at the River Moy crossing in the thirteenth century, giving the place a reason to gather, trade and remember itself. The settlement may have crowded the ford, argued over markets and disappeared when the route, ownership or patience changed. Its absence does not diminish it; it withholds the shape of the hands that built and abandoned it.

This record refers to a market town or settlement which was established in the vicinity of Ballylahan Castle (MA061-145001-), an Anglo-Norman fortification built in the mid-late 13th century by Jordan de Exeter at a fording point on the River Moy (Knox 1908, 108). The townland name derives from the Irish ‘Baile-Atha-lethain’ or ‘Town of the Broad Ford’. No trace now survives of a town, and it has not been possible to establish its exact location, extent or nature. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 6 January 2022

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