Ballina

History

The Dolmen of the Four Maols is located on 'Primrose Hill' behind Ballina railway station. This Bronze Age cist is sometimes dated to ca. 2,000 BCE and is locally known as the 'Table of the Giants'. Legend suggests that the megalithic tomb is the burial place of the 'Four Maols' (from the Irish word maol meaning "bald") — four brothers who murdered Ceallach, a 7th-century bishop of Kilmoremoy. Hanged at Ardnaree, the "hill of executions", tradition says that their bodies were buried under the dolmen. The structure is approximately 5 feet high with three upright stones supporting the capstone. Nearby is a fourth supporting stone. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the first signs of settlement on the site of the town date from around 1375, when an Augustinian friary was founded. Belleek, now part of the town, predates the town's formation, and can be dated back to the 16th century. Ballina was founded as a garrison town in 1723 by O'Hara, Lord Tyrawley. The Belleek demesne once stretched for over three kilometres along the left bank of the Moy estuary, from the gate lodge on Castle Road as far as Knockatinnole Wood in the north. From here, the demesne extended westward to the Killala Road, where there was a secondary entrance at a place known as "The Black Woods". During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, a small column of French soldiers advanced through the estate, as part of a reconnaissance group. This gave title to the avenue known as "The Old French Road". Most of the land of the Barons Tyrawley was let on long leases or for lives 'renewable forever' to the Knox and Gore families. Belleek and some of the original demesne lands remained within the ownership of the Knox-Gore family descendants until the early 1940s, when it was sold by Col. William Arthur…