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KILLASHEE

CO. LONGFORD · IE

Killashee
Cill Sidhe, Co. Longford

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 05 / 05

Cill Sidhe · Co. Longford

A small village on the Longford-to-Lanesborough road whose name means "church of the fairy hill".

Killashee does not appear in most guidebooks, which is accurate. It is a small roadside village on the N63, the road that runs from Longford town down to Lanesborough and the Shannon. Two hundred and fifteen people at the last count that bothered to separate it out. A church, a pub, a GAA pitch, houses strung along the road, and fields on either side.

The name is the interesting part. Cill Sidhe - the church of the fairy hill. Not a saint's dedication but a sí, the low mound that older Ireland treated with caution. The Catholic parish today is St Brigid's, and the GAA club carries her name too, but the placename itself points further back, to a church set down on ground that already meant something.

Come here if you want to see south Longford before tourism finds it, which it has not. Stay in Longford town or out at Lanesborough by the water, and drive the N63 through Killashee on a quiet morning. Stop for the church, stop for a pint in Magans, and keep going to the river. That is the honest shape of a visit.

Population

215 (2016 census)

Founded

Medieval church site; St Paul's rebuilt 1837

Coords

53.6814° N, 7.8803° W

01 / 05

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

Cill Sidhe - the church of the fairy hill.

Not a saint, a sí. The placename sources read it as the church built on or beside a fairy mound, the kind of low rise that Irish tradition left well alone. The older guidebooks that gave it a Saint Lasair were guessing.

Stories & lore → 02 The road

Midway on the N63 between Longford town and Lanesborough.

Eight kilometres south of Longford, eight kilometres east of the Shannon, with the Royal Canal in the vicinity. A linear roadside village rather than a square. You pass through it on the way to the river, and most people do exactly that.

Getting there →

02 / 05

The pubs.

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

Magans Bar

Family-run, stove-warmed, creamy pints

Village pub on the N63, since 1826

A striking three-storey building on the main road through the village, run by the same family tradition since 1826. Classic Irish interior, a stove in winter, and a settled local reputation for a properly poured pint. It is the pub in Killashee - so if you are stopping in the village, this is the stop.

03 / 05

Stories & lore.

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

Cill Sidhe

The church of the fairy hill

The Longford placename records read Killashee as Cill Sidhe, the church of the fairy hill - a church founded on or beside a sí, the kind of low mound that Irish tradition left undisturbed. The earlier guidebook habit of attaching a Saint Lasair to the place is not borne out by the sources. The truth is plainer and older: a Christian church planted on a spot that the pre-Christian landscape had already marked out. The graveyard at St Paul's holds a legible stone dated 1710, and the antiquarians reckon an earlier church stood on the same ground before the one you see now.

Board of First Fruits, in famine-era limestone

St Paul's, 1837

St Paul's Church of Ireland was rebuilt around 1837 with a grant of 1,211 pounds from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in the Board of First Fruits hall-and-tower manner with Gothic and Tudor Revival touches - likely to the design of James Welland. It is good snecked limestone over a dressed plinth: a six-bay nave, a battered square tower with corner pinnacles and a battlemented parapet, pointed lancet windows. The building keeps its original look, and the graveyard around it, with its 1710 stone and cast-iron railed plots, tells you the site is far older than the walls.

04 / 05

Things to do outside.

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

Village and St Paul's graveyard There is no waymarked trail here. Park near the church, walk the graveyard at St Paul's for the 1710 stone and the cast-iron railed plots, then the short stretch of the N63 through the village. Mind the traffic - it is a working road, not a promenade.

Under 1 kmdistance

30 minutestime

Towards the Royal Canal and the Shannon The Royal Canal and the Shannon are both within a few kilometres west. Killashee makes a better launch point than a destination: drive out to Lanesborough on the water, eight kilometres on, and walk the riverbank or the canal line there. Bring the village in as the quiet bit at the start of the day.

Varies, by car then on footdistance

Half a daytime

Getting there.

By car

On the N63 midway between Longford town and Lanesborough. Longford is 8 km north, about 10 minutes; Lanesborough and the Shannon are 8 km south-west. From Dublin, take the N4 to Longford, then the N63 south.

By bus

Bus Eireann route 425 (Longford to Galway via Lanesboro and Roscommon) passes through on weekdays; route 467 runs Longford to Lanesboro on Wednesdays. Killashee is a request stop on the road - check current timetables before relying on it.

By train

No station. The nearest is Longford, 8 km north, on the Dublin-Sligo line - about 1 h 45 m to Dublin Connolly.

By air

Dublin Airport is about 2 hours by road. Ireland West (Knock) is roughly 90 km north-west. Killashee is not a fly-in destination.