Drumshanbo

Sister cities

• Locquirec

History

Drumshanbo town originated from the extensive iron industry around Slieve Anierin from the 17th century. Pig iron produced at iron smelting works on the east of Slieve Anierin was brought south across Lough Allen to Drumshanbo finery forge where a malleable iron product was produced and transported to Dublin and Limerick by boat. The first ship built by the East India company in Limerick was supposedly finished with the product from Drumshanbo Iron works. According to folklore, the "Iron ore was conveyed to the Drumshanbo furnaces by boat, on Lough Allen, supplied from Slieven an Iern [Anerin], Ballinaglera, Arigna mountains, all situated around Lough Allen". Ireland was historically covered in woodland, as echoed in a 19th-century survey of Leitrim which stated that "A hundred years ago almost the whole country was one continued, undivided forest, so that from Drumshanbo to Drumkeeran, a distance of nine or ten miles, one could travel the whole way from tree to tree by branches". These former forests in Leitrim, and on the west side of Lough Allen, were denuded for the making of charcoal for iron works around Slieve Anierin. Large piles of cleared timber existed at Drumshanbo in 1782. Throughout at least the 19th and 20th centuries, fairs were held at Drumshanbo. These were formerly held on 12 February (or 15th), 12 May (or 17th), 11 (or 16) July, 6 October, and 16 November. In 1925, Drumshanbo village comprised 77 houses, 17 being licensed to sell alcohol. Approximately 500 victims of the Great Famine are buried at a famine-period burial ground at Drumshanbo.

Geography

Drumshanbo is situated at the lower tip of Lough Allen, the third biggest lake on the Shannon. It is overlooked by Sliabh an Iarainn, the iron mountain, which is approximately 585 metres high and is associated with a history of iron mining.