Kilskeery
| Kilskeery | |
| Tyrone | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | H298549 |
| Location: | 54°26’32"N, 7°32’31"W |
| Data | |
| Dialling code: | 028 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Derry and Omagh |
Kilskeery is a small village in Tyrone. It is between Ballinamallard and Trillick. The 2001 Census recorded a population of just 57 people.
The Ballinamallard River flows through the village towards Lough Erne. The village has two graveyards within its boundaries. The "old" graveyard surrounded by stone walls has graves from the 19th century.
There are two schools; Queen Elizabeth II Primary School and the Free Presbyterian School.
Parish church
The village is headed at the north by the local Church of Ireland church standing on top of a hill overlooking the village. The church is over 400 years old and was once an overnight refuge for King William of Orange.
The church has a tower with a bell that can be heard for miles around, and is used on Sunday mornings. The church is surrounded by what is referred to as the 'new' graveyard: the old graveyard is found just behind the green.
Behind the church are the Sunday school rooms, built quite recently to accommodate the expanding Sunday school classes; and behind the church grounds the local primary school, the Queen Elizabeth II, which has two classrooms and a dining hall, outside is the playing field and the school garden.
About the village
The village hall stands opposite the church.
At the end of Beatty Terrace (which leads south from the church) is the village green, a grassy area with some trees scattered through it and benches which on a sunny day attract travellers to stop and have a picnic.
The coming of the railways
Kilskeery is near Bundoran Junction railway station which was the junction of the Enniskillen and Bundoran Railway and the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway.
The Enniskillen and Bundoran Railway opened from Bundoran Junction on the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway near Kilskeery, Tyrone to Pettigo on 13 June 1866.[1] It was extended to Bundoran, County Donegal in 1868[2] and intended to continue to Sligo but failed to do so.[3] The Great Northern Railway ran the E&BR from 1876 and took it over in 1896.
The Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway Company was incorporated in 1875, and its construction started at a junction with the Great Northern Railway at Enniskillen and proceeded westwards. The Enniskillen and Bundoran accepted defeat and in 1878 Parliament passed an Act allowing it to abandon its commitment to extend to Sligo from Bundoran. The Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway adopted as its company seal a picture of two steam locomotives colliding, with one derailed and the other remaining on the track. This commemorated the company's success in reaching Sligo (in 1881) and the Enniskillen and Bundoran's failure to do the same.
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kilskeery) |
References
- ↑ "Bundoran Junction station". Railscot – Irish Railways. http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf.
- ↑ Hajducki, 1974, maps 6, 7
- ↑ Sprinks, N.W. (1970). Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway. Billericay: Irish Railway Record Society (London Area). p. 8.