Castle Balfour Demesne
| Castle Balfour TOWNLAND | |
| Fermanagh | |
|---|---|
 Castle Balfour | |
| Location | |
| Location: | 54°15’8"N, 7°26’32"W |
| Grid reference: | H364338 |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | BT |
Castle Balfour Demesne is a townland of 201 acres in Fermanagh, in the Barony of Magherastephana.[1] It contains part of the small town of Lisnaskea, with the remainder in the townland of Lisoneill.[2]
The townland contains the 17th-century remains of Castle Balfour, standing just off the main street in Lisnaskea, and which built around 1618 by James, Lord Balfour of Glenawley.[3] The castle was altered in 1652 and damaged in 1689, but remained inhabited into the 19th century. It was restored and conserved in the 1960s and 1990s.[4]
There was also evidence of a very much earlier ringfort (with radiocarbon dates of 359-428 AD) in the townland [5] suggesting the area was inhabited from a very early date.
The listed Church of Ireland church, Holy Trinity Church, is also situated in the townland.
References
- ↑ Castle Balfour Demesne - Placenames NI
- ↑ Lisnaskea - Placenames NI
- ↑ Flanagan, Laurence (1992). A Dictionary of Irish Archaeology. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 50–51.
- ↑ Scheduled Historic Monuments, 1 April 2019: Historic Environment Division, DoCNI
- ↑ Stout, Matthew (1997). The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts Press. pp. 18 and 28.