Jamestown, County Leitrim
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Jamestown (Irish: Cill Srianáin) is a village on the banks of the River Shannon in County Leitrim, Ireland. It lies some 5 km east-south-east of the county town, Carrick-on-Shannon.
Jamestown was originally built as a walled plantation town for seventeenth century English settlers. It used to be on the main Sligo to Dublin road (N4) and was known for the narrow pillars of the arch of the old town gate that straddles the road in the centre of the village. The arch was damaged by a passing lorry in the early 1970s and the top was removed. In recent years at Christmas a lighted skeletal arch has been erected by the local community.
Two pubs and a church mark the centre of the village, close to remains of the boundary walls.
Jamestown lies beside the Shannon with its own jetty and is a popular stopping point for boats.
[edit] History
The settlement was created by Royal Charter of James I in 1621, and was founded in 1622 as a plantation town carrying into action the decision of 1620 to plant Leitrim with loyal English settlers. It was granted to Sir Charles Coote, a Devonshire Planter, who fortified it with walls twenty feet high and six feet in thickness, enclosing an area of about 4 acres (16,000 m2) which contained a castle. It had an area of 200 acres (0.81 km2) under its liberty. The Borough with a very restricted franchise returned two members to the Irish Parliament until the Act of Union with Britain in 1801. Among its parliamentary representatives were Sir Charles Coote (1634–1660), John Fitzgibbons (later Lord Clare), (1776) and Richard (Humanity Dick) Martin. The surnames Butler and Clyne are particularly numerous in the Jamestown area.
A Stone cross over a small gate (constructed by Murtagh O'Dowd, local blacksmith), outside the old town gate, leads to the remains of a Franciscan friary of the convent of the Friars' Minor. The Franciscan convent of the Friars Minor was not founded until the occupation of Jamestown in 1642 by the O'Rourkes.
A synod held here in 1650 repudiated the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and excommunicated his followers.
[edit] Doon of Drumsna
The Dún (Doon) of Drumsna, an Iron Age fortification built to protect Connacht from invaders from the north lies close to the jetty and runs across the Shannon peninsula between Jamestown and Drumsna.
