Belmullet

History

The origin of the name Belmullet is not clear. It may have come from Irish Béal Muileat or Béal an Mhuileat, which has been translated as "mouth of the isthmus". According to Richard Pococke, in about 1715, Sir Arthur Shaen "began building a little town" where Belmullet now stands. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, an admiral chased pirates into Broadhaven Bay, hauled his boats across the isthmus, and caught up with them near the Iniskea Islands. To drain the area and form a passageway from Blacksod Bay into Broadhaven Bay, Shaen had a canal excavated, known thereafter as Shaen's Cut, large enough for small boats to pass through from one bay to the other. However, little development of the town occurred, and by 1752 the canal was choked up and impassable. Belmullet was the scene of Monster meetings of the Land League at the end of the 19th century. In the early 19th century Belmullet consisted of little more than a few thatched buildings. In 1820, the first post office in Erris opened in the new town of Belmullet. In 1822, a coastguard station was built. William Henry Carter had inherited huge tracts of Shaen's land in Erris when he married Shaen's daughter and began to put plans in place to develop the town. Carter tasked engineer and Castlebar native Patrick Knight with designing and planning the new town between Broadhaven and Blacksod bays. Knight published his town plan in his 1836 treatise Erris in the Irish Highlands, in which he described Belmullet as a "mirage in the desert", positioned between two sheltered bays which provided potentially safe anchorage for Atlantic trade. A new road was built which connected Belmullet with Castlebar, which was completed in 1824. In 1825, Carter built a pier large enough to accommodate vessels of 100 tons. Carter's…