archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

slated houses and a constabulary barracks. It was here that Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), a leading
English novelist who was stationed for a time and drew on the nearby ruined Headford House for his first
novel, The Macdermotts of Ballycloran (published 1847).
The nineteenth century Church of Ireland church of Annaduff is set in a backdrop of trees on the east
bank of the river near Drumsna. In the graveyard there are some ruins of an earlier church and the stones
of this are thought to have been from some of the eighth century Annaduff Abbey structures which were
originally on this site. The bridge at Drumsna, unlike most of the other Shannon bridges, was not replaced
by the Shannon Commissioners (Delaney 2000). The old harbour, constructed in 1817, was lowered by
the Board of Works, who have also built a new quay extending downstream (ibid.). The Roman Catholic
church at Drumsna, dating to 1845, is listed as a protected structure in the county development plan. In
addition, both the Roman Catholic and the Church of Ireland churches at Annaduff are listed as protected
structures.
Mohill
Originally a market and post town, it is located southeast from Carrick-on-Shannon. Lewis (1837) notes
that it was the site of an early medieval abbey founded for canons regular in 608, and dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin, by St. Manchan, who died in 652. The establishment, endowed with glebes, tithes, vassals’
fees, and other lands, existed till the dissolution, and in 1621, the rectory, as part of its possessions, was
granted to Henry Crofton, Esq., under the commission for the plantation of Leitrim. At the time of
Lewis’s writings, the town, neatly built, contained 305 houses and 1606 inhabitants; deriving its chief trade
from its location on what was a public thoroughfare towards Sligo.
There are some archaeological sites listed below that are located near Mohill, which are not included in
Appendix 1 since they are beyond 500m from the waterway: RMP LE032-069--- Boeeshil (Mohill By.)
Ringfort; RMP LE032-089--- Boeeshil (Mohill By.) Ringfort; RMP LE032-06802- to 06- Mohill Church (site);
RMP LE032-06701- Mohill Fortified house; RMP LE032-070--- Aghnacross Earthwork; LE032-066---
Tullybradan Holy well (site, possible).
Nothing survives of the early ecclesiastical site founded by St Manchan in the 6 th or 7 th century (Anon.
1940, 43; MacNamee 1954, 723; Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 376; Pinkman 1942 36-9). The Augustinian rule was
introduced in the early twelfth century, and the church is described as a parish church in 1470
(MacNamee 1954, 724). In 1590 the precinct contained a church, two stone buildings and a cemetery,
while Henry Crofton added a chapel in the early seventeenth century (Logan 1971, 327-8). The
foundations of a rectangular building remain in the graveyard, where there is also a Church of Ireland
church.
Also within Mohill town, are the partial remains a fortified house belonging to Henry Crofton. Only part
of a bawn wall with the base of a circular corner tower remain of what was a seventeenth century house
and bawn. An eighteenth century five-bay, two-storey building, owned by the Crofton family (Turley 1944,
file no. 146), occupied the site until it was demolished in 1977 (Leitrim Observer, 08-10-1977). The
Church of Ireland church built c. 1820 at Mohill is listed for protection in the County Development Plan,
while there are also several nineteenth century town houses, a fever hospital (built 1841), railway station
and Roman Catholic church that are included in the NIAH for the area. Located adjacent to the R201
road from Mohill to Annaduff are the scant remains of Drumcree mills. Storage outbuildings remain in a
33