Longford, County Longford
Photograph: 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
County Longford · Leinster

Longford

An Longfort

'the fortress' — from a word the Irish took from Norse for a ship-camp

The story

The county town, named for an O'Farrell fortress on the Camlin. The O'Farrells were princes of Annaly and held the Shannon crossings between the Pale and the Gaelic west. Oliver Goldsmith grew up a few miles away and put the countryside into 'The Deserted Village'.

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.
  • Strokestown Park · The landlord here shipped 1,490 tenants to Canada in 1847, half died, and was shot dead that November. His house is now the National Famine Museum.
  • 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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