LAURENCETOWN

Samuel Lewis

A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland

1837

LAURENCETOWN, a village, in the parish of CLONFERT, barony of LONGFORD, county of GALWAY, and province of CONNAUGHT, 6 miles (S.) from Ballinasloe, on the road to Eyrecourt, to which places it has a penny post: the population is returned with the parish. It is a chief constabulary police station, and petty sessions are held weekly on Thursday. A considerable quantity of wooden ware and furniture is manufactured here, and fairs are held on May 8th, Aug. 22nd, and Dec. 15th, for cattle, sheep, and pigs. The R. C. chapel for this part of the district is a good modern building; and the Wesleyan Methodists also have a chapel here and support a school. The seats in the vicinity are Bellevue, or Liscreaghan, the residence of Walter Laurence, Esq., situated in an extensive and well-wooded demesne containing a number of remarkably fine cedars of Lebanon and evergreen oaks; Gortnamona, the elegant seat of P. Blake, Esq.; Somerset House, of Simeon Seymour, Esq.; Somerset Glebe, of the Rev. J. Hanigan; and Ballymore Castle, of Thomas Seymour, Esq., a fortified structure erected in 1620, and modernised at a considerable expense in 1815. Near the town are the ruins of the castle of O'Hill, from which it formerly took the name of Ohillmore.

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