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Kiltoom, County Roscommon

Civil parishes of County RoscommonUntranslated Irish place namesUse Hiberno-English from January 2020
Kiltoom Stores geograph.org.uk 964726
Kiltoom Stores geograph.org.uk 964726

Kiltoom, also Kiltomb (from Irish Cill Tuama), is a civil parish as well as an electoral division in County Roscommon, Ireland. There is also an eponymous townland in the parish. Kiltoom is located northwest of Athlone on the southwestern shore of Lough Ree. The main road in the parish area is the N61 between Athlone and Roscommon. Kiltoom formerly had a railway station on the Dublin to Westport line which opened in 1860 and closed in 1963. The primary school, Ballybay Central National School, is a Catholic school. The townlands and parishes of Kiltoom and Cam were used as examples in a study of rural communities in Roscommon in the century preceding the Great Famine of the 1840s.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kiltoom, County Roscommon (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Kiltoom, County Roscommon
N61,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.492 ° E -8.037 °
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Address

Kiltoom Graveyard

N61
(Kiltoom Electoral Division)
Ireland
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Kiltoom Stores geograph.org.uk 964726
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Lough Ree
Lough Ree

Lough Ree (Irish: Loch Rí), translated to English as King's Lake or King Lake, is a lake in the midlands of Ireland, the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon. Lough Ree is the second largest lake on the Shannon after Lough Derg. The other two major lakes are Lough Allen to the north, and Lough Derg to the south. There are also several minor lakes along the length of the river. The lake serves as a border between the counties of Longford and Westmeath (both in the province of Leinster) on the eastern side and County Roscommon in the province of Connacht on the western side. The lake is popular for fishing and boating. The lake supports a small commercial eel fishery and is locally famous for its eels on wheels truck. The town of Athlone is situated at the southern end of the lake, and has a harbour for boats going out on the lake. The small town of Lanesboro is at the northern end of the lake. The island of Inchcleraun (Inis Cloithreann) in the northern part of the lake is the site of a monastery founded in the early Christian era and contains the remains of several ancient churches. In Irish legends, it was on this island that Queen Maeve was killed. The Viking Turgesius controlled a ringfort on the shores until his death by drowning in Lough Owel. Families lived on some of the islands in Lough Ree including Inchcleraun (Walsh & Farrell), The Black Islands (Hanly & O'Hara), Inchmore (Tiernan, Quigley, Nolan & Keefe), Hare Island (Duffy), Inchbofin (Connell), Inch Turk (Ganly, Slevin & Walsh) and Inchenagh (Shea, Killian & Connaughton) until the 1950s, when they were rehoused ashore. Like several other Irish loughs, Lough Ree has been the scene of claimed sightings of a lake monster over the years. The geographical centre of Ireland was previously calculated to be in the townland of Carnagh East, County Roscommon on the western shore of Lough Ree, opposite the Cribby Islands Also Hodson pillar which is located on an island on the lake is said to be the most central point in Ireland. However, in 2022 Ordnance Survey Ireland did a new calculation which put the centre near Castletown Geoghegan in County Westmeath.

Siege of Athlone (1690)
Siege of Athlone (1690)

The siege of Athlone was part of the Williamite War in Ireland between the supporters of King James II, who were known as Jacobites, and the supporters of King William of Orange. The siege began on 17 July 1690, when Williamite Lieutenant-General James Douglas arrived outside the Jacobite held city of Athlone with ten regiments of foot and five regiments of horse for a total force of 12,000. The Governor of Athlone, Colonel Richard Grace decided to defend the western part of the city. The Jacobite troops destroyed the bridge over the Shannon River that connected the eastern and western parts of the city, before the Williamite Army arrived. The city's garrison consisted of three regiments of foot and eleven troops of horse for a total force of about 4,500. General Douglas sent a messenger to Colonel Grace demanding he surrender the city. Colonel Grace responded by firing a pistol shot over the head of the messenger and stating "These are my terms; these only, I will give or receive, and when my provisions are consumed, I will defend till I eat my old boots." General Douglas commenced a bombardment of the city with twelve cannon and two mortars, the city of Athlone's guns returned fire. After two days the Williamite Army attempted to ford the Shannon River but were repelled with considerable loss. The artillery fire continued between the two sides until 24 July when General Douglas was forced to retire having suffered about 400 casualties, lacking provisions and equipment for a longer siege and having heard rumors that Patrick Sarsfield and the Jacobite Cavalry were en route to relieve the city of Athlone's garrison. Although the Jacobites withstood the week long siege, a year later the Williamite Army returned and took the city. Governor Richard Grace died defending the city during the 2nd siege of Athlone in 1691.