Castle Balfour Demesne

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Castle Balfour
TOWNLAND
Fermanagh
Castle Balfour, Lisnaskea - geograph.org.uk - 1270799.jpg
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

  1. Castle Balfour Demesne - Placenames NI
  2. Lisnaskea - Placenames NI
  3. Flanagan, Laurence (1992). A Dictionary of Irish Archaeology. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 50–51. 
  4. Scheduled Historic Monuments, 1 April 2019: Historic Environment Division, DoCNI
  5. Stout, Matthew (1997). The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts Press. pp. 18 and 28.