Mohill

A small south Leitrim market town that gave Turlough O'Carolan a home in his last years — and gave Lough Rynn Castle to a 21st-century hotel group.

Mohill sits on high ground in south Leitrim, overlooking Lough Rynn. On the lough shore stands Lough Rynn Castle — a Victorian estate now a luxury hotel. Even if you don't stay (rooms are expensive), the grounds are accessible and worth a walk to the water's edge.

The town is small — a main street, a few pubs, a school. Population around 950. But the name carries music. Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738), the blind harper, came here at age 50 when the Crofton family gave him land and a home. He had been born in Meath, gone blind from smallpox as a young man, learned the harp under patronage, and spent decades travelling Ireland. Mohill was where he settled with his wife Mary. She died in 1733; O'Carolan himself died in 1738 in Roscommon and is buried at Kilronan, near Keadue. A bronze statue by sculptor Oisín Kelly stands at Market Square in Mohill, unveiled by President Patrick Hillery in 1986.

John McGahern, the Irish novelist, was associated with the area around nearby Aughawillan. His novels — Amongst Women, The Dark, That They May Face the Rising Sun — are rooted in the landscape and rhythms of south Leitrim.