POSTED FROM

NEWTOWNGORE

CO. LEITRIM · IE

Newtowngore
An Dúcharraig, Co. Leitrim

The Southeast Leitrim
STOP 07 / 07

An Dúcharraig · Co. Leitrim

A small farming village on the Cavan border, named for a Plantation landlord but tied by legend to St Patrick's road to Magh Slecht.

Newtowngore is a very small village in the southeast corner of Leitrim, on the R199, in the north of Carrigallen parish and right against the Cavan border. The Irish name is An Dúcharraig, 'the black rock', and the older form was Ducarrick. The English name is a Plantation name - the Gore family held the estates here from the 17th century, and the village that grew up took their name. It is farming country: a Church of Ireland church, a national school, a post office, a few shops and one pub strung along the road, in soft drumlin-and-bog land.

The deeper story is older than the Gores. The 9th-century Tripartite Life of St Patrick records that Patrick, on his way to the plain of Magh Slecht in west Cavan to throw down the idol Crom Cruaich, founded a church near here and ordained a priest named Bruscus to keep it. The ruins of the medieval Church of Moy, dedicated to Patrick, still stand in the Church of Ireland churchyard, and there are holy wells dedicated to him in the townlands of Aughawillan and Beaghmore nearby. The fields around the village hold a scatter of ringforts - at Carrickateane, Mullyaster, Tully North and Killydrum - the marks of farmers who worked this ground two thousand years ago.

There is not much here for a visitor in the brochure sense, and the place would not claim otherwise. In the 1800s Newtowngore was busier than it looks now: a market for grain every Monday and a string of fair days through the year. The fairs and the markets are long gone. What is left is a real, lived-in border village - the kind of place that tells you what small-farm Ireland actually is, without the varnish. Come for an hour, a pint, a look at the old church in the graveyard, and the quiet.

Population

Newtowngore ED 242 (2016 census)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

The whole village in five minutes on foot

Founded

Plantation-era estate village of the Gore family; older church site linked to St Patrick

Coords

54.0431° N, 7.6731° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The name

Two names: An Dúcharraig, 'the black rock', and Newtowngore for the Gore family.

Before the Plantation the place was Ducarrick - An Dúcharraig, the black rock. The English name comes from the Gore family, who took the estates here in the 17th century. The village sits on the R199 in the southeast corner of Leitrim, in the north of Carrigallen parish, hard against the Cavan line.

Stories & lore → 02 The saint

On St Patrick's road to break the idol of Magh Slecht.

The 9th-century Tripartite Life of St Patrick has Patrick founding a church near here and ordaining a priest, Bruscus, as he travelled toward Magh Slecht in west Cavan to destroy Crom Cruaich, the pagan idol. The ruined medieval Church of Moy stands in the Church of Ireland grounds.

Stories & lore → 03 The place

A working farming village, not a tourist one.

Around 240 people in the wider district. A Church of Ireland church, a national school, a post office, a handful of shops and one pub. Soft drumlin and bog country on the Leitrim-Cavan border. Honest, quiet, and not pretending to be anything else.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Gorby's

The one pub, and the social hub

Village bar, on the main road

Newtowngore's pub, run by the Gorby family. In a village this size it is the meeting point as much as a drinking house. Do not arrive expecting a choice of bars or a late scene - this is it, and on a quiet night it is enough. A pint and whoever is in.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

From the 9th-century Tripartite Life

St Patrick and the road to Magh Slecht

The oldest claim Newtowngore makes is a Patrician one. The Tripartite Life of St Patrick, written down in the 9th century, has Patrick passing this way on his journey to Magh Slecht - the Plain of Prostrations, in the west of Cavan - where the great pagan idol Crom Cruaich stood, a gold figure ringed by twelve stones and worshipped, the lore says, with first-born sacrifice for good milk and grain. Patrick is said to have founded a church near Newtowngore and ordained a priest, Bruscus, to look after it before going on to break the idol. The ruined medieval Church of Moy, dedicated to Patrick, survives in the Church of Ireland churchyard, and two holy wells to the saint lie in the townlands of Aughawillan and Beaghmore. Whatever you make of the legend, the ground here was Christianised early and the dedication has stuck for over a thousand years.

A black rock, then a Plantation name

Ducarrick to Newtowngore

Before the seventeenth century this place was Ducarrick - An Dúcharraig, 'the black rock'. The name on the map today, Newtowngore, is a Plantation overlay: the Gore family were granted estates in this corner of Leitrim and the new town took their surname, as so many Irish estate villages did. The older Gaelic name survived underneath it, the way these things do. The shift from An Dúcharraig to Newtowngore is the whole seventeenth century in two words - the breaking of Gaelic landholding and the planting of a new order on top of it.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The village and the old church Newtowngore is a walk of minutes. The point is the Church of Ireland churchyard, where the ruined medieval Church of Moy - the Patrician foundation - still stands among the graves. A short, honest turn around a working village rather than a hike. Slow down rather than clock distance.

Under 1 kmdistance

30 minutestime

Ringforts and holy wells in the townlands The country around the village holds Iron Age ringforts at Carrickateane, Mullyaster, Tully North and Killydrum, and St Patrick's holy wells at Aughawillan and Beaghmore. None of it is signposted as an attraction - these sit in working fields, so respect gates and livestock and keep your distance. This is archaeology in the ground, not behind a ticket barrier.

Varies, by car and on footdistance

A morningtime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The drumlin country greens up and the ground dries enough to walk the churchyard and the field monuments comfortably. A good quiet time.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the best of the light over the border country. Still nowhere near busy - this is not a place that fills up.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Low light over the bog and drumlins suits the place. Newtowngore is at its most itself out of season, which is most of the year.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, wet and soft underfoot, and little daylight to fill. The pub carries the place. Come for a pint by the fire, not for the landscape.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating it as a day out

Newtowngore is a village of a couple of hundred people in the wider district. You can see the whole of it in twenty minutes. It is an hour, a pint, a look at the old church - not a day's itinerary. Scale your expectations to the place and it rewards you.

Expecting a tourist village

There is no heritage trail, no visitor centre, no row of cafes. The ringforts and holy wells are in working fields, not behind barriers, and the medieval church is a ruin in a churchyard. This is a real farming village, and that honesty is the appeal.

Beds and dining in the village

There is no hotel and no restaurant here. For a proper bed and a meal you are looking at Ballinamore, Carrigallen, or Cavan town. Plan your sleep and your dinner elsewhere and use Newtowngore for the pint and the history.

Getting there.

By car

Newtowngore is on the R199 in the southeast of Leitrim, in the north of Carrigallen parish on the Cavan border. Roughly 7 km north of Carrigallen and about 12 km southeast of Ballinamore. A car is the sensible way to get here and to reach the townlands and field monuments around it.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 462 serves Newtowngore on Saturdays only, linking it to Sligo via Ballinamore and Drumshanbo. That is effectively the extent of scheduled public transport - for any other day, you need a car.

By train

No railway. The narrow-gauge Cavan and Leitrim line that once threaded this country closed in 1959. The nearest useful mainline stations are at Carrick-on-Shannon or Dromod on the Dublin-Sligo line, both a drive away.