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Live the quiet life in lovely Leitrim Leitrim is a narrow
county, 46 miles in length, which can claim two miles of Atlantic coastline.
It’s as though the county insisted it had to have one toe in the
water no matter what.
Liatroim (Irish for Grey Ridge) is Ireland’s least populated county,
with only 26,000 souls.
You could pack them all into the Cusack Stand of Croke Park and still
have room for a few folk from Roscommon as well.
But if it’s quiet rural countryside you’re after then you’re
spoilt for choice.
Which is funny, because everything else is unspoilt.
Most of the county is hilly or even mountainous, with moorland eventually
reaching Slieve Aniaran, nearly 2,000 feet.
The many boglands have given the area a reputation for dampness: Indeed
locals boast that farmland “isn’t sold by the acre —
it’s sold by the gallon.”
However if you can get a few fine days here, a drive through the area
will reward you with delightful rural scenery — and one major bonus.
There is only one set of traffic lights in the whole county; in 2003 a
set was installed at the pedestrian crossing at Carrick-on-Shannon.
Carrick
The main raison d’etre of Carrick-on-Shannon these days seems to
be to service the burgeoning cruise boat industry.
From Carrick you can join the Shannon-Erne Waterway, which allows you
to head north towards Enniskillen or south to the Shannon Estuary and
on to the open sea.
That’s not to say that Carrick isn’t blessed with charms for
landlubbers as well.
At the top end of Bridge Street is the “second smallest chapel in
the world”.
There are at least three claimants to the title of “smallest church
in Ireland”, so it would be surprising if there isn’t more
than one second smallest house-of-worship.
Whatever its claims, the minuscule Costello Chapel, built in 1877 by Edward
Costello (no known relation to Elvis) is certainly impressive.
It was built on Mr Costello’s instructions as a memorial to Mrs
Costello.
Reunited in death, the loving couple’s lead coffins lie on each
side of the tiny beautifully decorated aisle.
Drumsna
Until the early 19th Century, the head of the Shannon Navigation was Drumsna,
where the famous English novelist, Trollope, was Postmaster.
He wrote of his 15 years in Ireland: “It was altogether a very jolly
life that I led in Ireland. The Irish people did not murder me, nor did
they even break my head. I soon found them to be good-humoured, clever
— the working classes very much more intelligent than those of England
— economical and hospitable.”
Here, in this unhurried part of Connacht, the author found time to write
two novels, The Macdermots Of Ballycloran and The Kellys And The O’Kellys,
both of which were based on the countryside and people of Drumsna and
its neighbourhood.
Drumsna boasts one other esoteric claim: It is the last resting place
of the first Irishman to cross Africa and the first to see the Mountains
of the Moon.
Surgeon General Major Thomas Heazle Parke was born just over the border
in Roscommon.
He took part in the famous 6,000-mile expedition in 1887. Heading south
from Drumsna, he took the road to Aghamore, turned left towards Ballinamuck
and after that it was all plain sailing.
Drumshanbo
Drumshanbo is a recommended centre for angling, boasting some of the best
pike fishing in the county.
The AA Guide will tell you that the name Drumshanbo derives from Droim
Seanbhó, meaning Ridge of the Old Cow but locals will inform you
in confidence that it means “the back of the old cow’s arse”.
Unfortunately the Sliabh an Iarann visitor centre, while giving a lot
of local background on the area, has no information on this particular
etymological point.
But you’ll find information on the town’s Franciscan Convent
of Perpetual Adoration, created in 1864 and still the only foundation
of its kind in the world.
Kiltyclogher
Kiltyclogher, or Coillte Clochair (“the Woods of the Stony Place”)
is situated on the Fermanagh border about halfway between Lough Melvin
and Lough Macnean Upper.
Surrounded by Leitrim’s lovely countryside, the village square is
guarded over by a statue of Sean MacDiarmada, one of the leaders of the
1916 Rising.
Sean held the distinction of having played uilleann pipes for the Pope.
Traces of the Black Pig’s Dyke can be seen in the townland of Corracloona,
just outside the town.
Legend declares that this ancient earthwork, sometimes called the Worm
Ditch or Black Pig’s Race and stretching from Bundoran in the west
to Newry in Co. Down, was formed by a huge serpent slithering over the
land.
And if it wasn’t a serpent, then it was a monstrous pig that snuffled
and rooted about.
More sober investigation suggests that it’s a prehistoric boundary
line constructed by Ulstermen.
Leitrim’s lofty heights
The Dartry Mountains in particular provide plenty of opportunity for superb
hikes.
The area is rugged and although not rising to any great height, the limestone
outcrops form dramatically curious shapes, with vertical cliffs and isolated
rock spires.
The highest of the summits is Truskmore at 2,113 feet.
Perhaps the last words should be left to the Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre,
who now lives in Leitrim.
When asked where he gets his inspiration, he answered: “I sit in
an upstairs room on a mountainside in Co. Leitrim, where the night is
properly black and the probability of gales is high.
“Work in these hours makes you a fugitive; you can run unseen with
your works until the first birdsong.” |
