placenamesBallymahon
Baile Uí Mhatháin
The surrounding electoral division includes an unusual hunting lodge and a graveyard rich in carved memorial detail.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile Uí Mhatháin · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Ballymahon · English · main form
Place & story
Cutts Harman’s octagonal lodge
Castlecor House in Castlecore originated as a hunting lodge for Cutts Harman, later Dean of Waterford Cathedral. Its construction date remains uncertain: the architectural inventory discusses both the 1740s and about 1765. Four short wings project from alternating sides of an octagonal centre, with tall round-headed windows occupying the intervening walls. [2]
Four fireplaces in one room
The upper room's central chimney structure has marble fireplaces on four sides, framed by Corinthian columns. Later additions changed the house substantially, including an entrance block designed by A. G. C. Millar around 1913. Castlecor subsequently served as a convent and nursing home, adding institutional uses to the former estate residence. [2]
Carved occupations at Shrule
Jimmy Lennon's October 2005 survey recorded 254 inscribed memorials at Shrule Old Graveyard, including a William Dunn inscription dated 25 July 1702. Church ruins, a stone font and several forms of tomb survived there. Some stones display occupational imagery associated with ploughmen, surveyors and blacksmiths, preserving evidence of local working lives alongside family commemoration. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballymahon. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Castlecor House, NIAH13402608 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Shrule Old Graveyard, County Longford Graveyard Inventory, printed p1 · Jimmy Lennon, October2005; Longford County Library
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.