Killeshandra

Killeshandra Cill na Seanrátha
Town
Killashandra
Killeshandra, Main Street looking north (2011)
Killeshandra Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 54°00′55″N 7°31′44″W / 54.01523°N 7.52894°W / 54.01523; -7.52894Coordinates: 54°00′55″N 7°31′44″W / 54.01523°N 7.52894°W / 54.01523; -7.52894
Country	Ireland
Province	Ulster
County	County Cavan
Elevation	66 m (217 ft)
Population (2011)
• Town	1,143
• Urban	364
Irish Grid Reference	H308074

Killeshandra or Killashandra - Irish place name Cill na Seanrátha meaning Church of the Old Rath (ringforts), population 1,143, is a small town in County Cavan, Ireland. It is 20 km (12 mi) northwest of Cavan town and central to County Cavan's lakeland and geopark region, in the unique Erne catchment environment of rivers, lakes, wetlands and woodland. Together with the Lough Oughter Special Protected Area (SPA), it has been recognised by the EU programme for wildlife Natura 2000 since 2010. Killeshandra is specially noted by Failte Ireland as an Angling Centre of Excellence, as well as a hub for the Cavan Walking Festival which takes place in May each year. There are several looped walking and cycling trails in Killykeen Forest Park. The town also has a prominent football club called the Killeshandra GFC, known locally as the Killeshandra Leaguers.

Killeshandra owes its origins to the Ulster Plantation, when Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick, Scotland was granted lands by the crown in July 1610 to build a castle and create a Protestant community around the barony of Tullyhunco. The 1641 rising and civil war was a particularly difficult period in Killeshandra's history, as the Hamiltons with their neighbours the Craigs were forced out of their settled lands by the O'Reillys. It was not until after the war, during the Restoration period, that Sir Francis Hamilton regained control of the area. He set about building a market town with Scottish planters and migrant Huguenot settlers who were especially noted for their industry and thrift. The new settlers and their families quickly adapted to the local conditions, beginning to grow flax and process linen in the Cavan region. The earliest papal records of a church building in the area date from the fourteenth century on the site of a former rath (fort), then a dependency of Drumlane priory referred to as the Church of the Rath. From the early 17th century the church was reformed for Protestant use and included the glebe lands allocated by the Hamiltons to the Anglican Kilmore diocese, for Scottish Episcopalian worship. Later in the century when peace was restored, the church was remodelled in 1688 (Jacobean Church) as a lasting memorial to departed members of the original Hamilton family. The remains of this church form part of a protected National Monument and can still be seen at the lower end of the town (opposite Lakeland Dairies). This church displays some unusual architectural characteristics; it is T-shaped, with a south-facing transept in the Renaissance neo-classical style, described in the Pevsner Guide to South Ulster as "arguably the finest Restoration building in Ulster, a handsome evocation of the improving architectural eloquence of the age". The east-facing window is in the more traditional Gothic style. Hamilton heraldic embellishment is visible on the south gable wall and gate pillars. When a new Anglican church was built (circa 1842) further up the main street, some of the earlier Hamilton family memorials attributed to well-known Irish sculptor William Kidwell were brought from the old church and placed inside the new building, where they can still be seen. The graveyard continued in "mixed" community use for well over a century after the church was closed; it is now also protected as a National Monument. This graveyard includes some interesting 19th-century mausoleums and heraldic memorials from families dating back to the early 18th century.