County Longford · Leinster

Ballymahon

Baile Uí Mhatháin

'Mahon's town'

The story

On the Inny in the south of the county, in the country Oliver Goldsmith grew up in. The village of Auburn nearby is taken to be the deserted village of his poem, emptied as he said by a landlord clearing ground for a demesne.

Worth seeing nearby
  • Corlea Trackway · An 18-metre stretch of the great oak road of 148 BC, preserved in a climate-controlled hall exactly where the bog swallowed it.
  • Hill of Uisneach · The mythic navel of Ireland, where the five provinces met at the Catstone and the great Bealtaine fire was lit — answered by fires on hills across the island.
  • Hill of Uisneach · Where the goddess Ériu, who gave Ireland its name, met the invading Milesians and was promised the island would bear her name forever. It has.
  • Brí Léith — Midir and Étaín · Midir of the Sídhe played the High King Eochaid at fidchell for his own wife back, lost on purpose until the last game, then took Étaín out through the roof as two swans. Eochaid dug into this hill after her and was given fifty women wearing her face.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.

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