Castleblayney
Border Town
Main Street
Castleblayney (Irish: Baile na Lorgan) is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town has a population of 3,634 according to the 2011 census.Castleblayney lies near the border with County Armagh (Northern Ireland) and is on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry. Its name is often shortened to “Blayney” or “Blaney” by locals (click here for directions).
Lough Muckno
The town, in the heart of typical South Ulster drumlin and lake countryside, lies above the western shore of Lough Muckno, the largest lake in County Monaghan. The River Fane flows eastwards from the lake to the Irish Sea at Dundalk in County Louth. As the Irish name of the lake, ‘the place where pigs swim’, suggests, the area is associated with the Black Pig’s Dyke (also known locally in parts of Counties Cavan and Monaghan as the Worm Ditch), an ancient Iron Age boundary of Ulster.
Hope Castle
A few miles to the north-east is the highest elevation in County Monaghan, ‘Mullyash’, altitude 317 m (1,034 ft). Until modern times it was associated with folk festivals of which the churches often disapproved. Markets and fair days were held in the town since the 17th century, but these have faded away in recent decades. Beyond the town, there are a variety of proposed natural heritage sites.
The town of Castleblayney originated in the Tudor conquest of Gaelic Ulster in the Nine Years’ War, 1583-1601. In 1611 the Crown granted forfeited lands in the area previously owned by the MacMahon chieftains to Sir Edward Blayney of Montgomeryshire in Wales for his service to Queen Elizabeth I. He became Baron of Monaghan and later, the first Lord Blayney. She had already granted him appropriated Augustinian church land (or ‘termon’) at Muckno Friary on the northeastern side of the lake in the Churchill area (Mullandoy) in 1606/7 (Source: Wikipedia).
Beautiful Ireland 