What is recorded here

Ballylahan is a phantom town in County Mayo, reduced to a name because the broad ford, market stalls and castle vanished beneath time and change. Jordan de Exeter raised his Anglo-Norman stronghold at the River Moy crossing in the thirteenth century, using the ford as a lever for trade and control. The Strafford Inquisition of 1635 still listed the castle, town and lands, proving the settlement remained visible enough to claim decades after its peak. What is missing is not evidence of life but life itself: the clatter of carts, the weight of bargained goods and the ordinary certainty that a place would still be there tomorrow.

The Strafford Inquisition of Co. Mayo undertaken in 1635-37 records '…the moiety of the castle [MA111-072002-], town and lands of Lehinch…' (O' Sullivan 1958, 70). The town or settlement is likely to have grown up around the castle, but no remains have been identified of either and their precise location is unknown. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 February 2023

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