Things to do in County Leitrim

Manorhamilton Castle is a ruined plantation castle in the town of Manorhamilton in County Leitrim, built in 1638 by Sir Frederick Hamilton, a Scottish planter granted lands in north Leitrim following the early seventeenth-century plantation settlements. The four-square courtyard house served simultaneously as stronghold and residence, symbolising the transformation of Connacht's social and landowning structure by the plantation era. Sir Frederick conducted brutal campaigns during the 1641 rising and the castle was damaged in subsequent wars, eventually being abandoned as a ruin. Manorhamilton today is the principal town of north Leitrim, set in a dramatic glaciated valley surrounded by limestone mountains.