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TAGHSHINNY

CO. LONGFORD · IE

Taghshinny
Teach Sinche, Co. Longford

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Teach Sinche · Co. Longford

A scattered south-Longford church parish with no pub, a medieval graveyard, and a Georgian rectory that was once home to Oscar Wilde's aunt.

Taghshinny is a parish more than a village - a thin scatter of farmhouses in the south-east corner of County Longford, on the R399 about five kilometres north-east of Ballymahon. The name is the giveaway. Teach Sinche means the house of Sineach, a saint, and in Irish placenames a teach of this kind usually marks an early church site rather than a dwelling. There is no village centre to speak of, no shop, and no pub. What there is, is old ground.

The Church of Ireland is the anchor. The present building dates to about 1720, rebuilt in 1784 and again around 1825, but it sits on a far older foundation - a church is recorded here in the Annals of Loch Ce as far back as 1227, and two early cross-slabs at the site hint at a monastic link to Inchcleraun out on Lough Ree. The graveyard around it carries stones from 1684 onward: upstanding, recumbent, box, table and vault markers, fenced in cast and wrought iron. It is the kind of churchyard you walk slowly.

This is not a stop you fall into. It is flat, quiet farming country off the main roads, and the reasons to come are specific: to stand in the old graveyard, to stay a night in the Glebe House, and to walk or cycle the Royal Canal a few kilometres south, where the National Famine Way runs through some of the prettiest, emptiest stretches of the whole route. Ballymahon is ten minutes for shops and a pint. Stay here for the quiet, not the company.

Population

Rural parish, under 200

Founded

Early church site (a church recorded here from 1227 in the Annals of Loch Ce); present Church of Ireland c. 1720

Coords

53°35'31"N 7°41'54"W

01 / 06

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Glebe House B&B	Georgian rectory B&B, built 1825	The 1825 parish rectory, now a family-run B&B with four guest rooms, a sitting room, a dining room and a games room with a full-size snooker table. Period pieces throughout and modern comforts kept honestly in the background. Once home to Oscar Wilde's aunt Emily and her husband the Rev. William Noble. The Royal Canal Greenway and the National Famine Way are on the doorstep, and Ardagh Heritage Centre and the Corlea Trackway are short drives. Book ahead - it is small and well regarded.

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

Judge Gore, 1753

The Annaly monument and the Gores

The Church of Ireland here is the family church of the Gores, the big landowners of this corner of Longford in the eighteenth century, who held nearby Tennelick House and rose to the title Baron Annaly. Inside is the large Annaly monument to the family, and a handsome marble memorial to Judge Gore dated 1753, carved by the London sculptor John Van Nost the Younger - a serious piece of work to find in a small rural church. A cut-stone Nugent memorial of the 1760s-70s is set into the south-east wall. The Gores almost certainly built the original church; the Sankey family had taken the Tennelick estate in the seventeenth century, and the Gores inherited it from them.

The Glebe House, 1825

Oscar Wilde's aunt slept here

The Glebe House, the Georgian rectory just outside the village, was built in 1825 as the home for the parish clergyman. Among the rectors who lived there was the Rev. William Noble, and his wife Emily was an aunt of Oscar Wilde - which means the future playwright had family in this quiet Longford parish. The house is a substantial three-bay, two-storey building over a raised basement, with a fanlight over the door and bracketed eaves, the sort of dwelling that speaks to the former prosperity of the parish. It survives today as a family-run B&B.

Scarcely a trace

The lost castle at Barry

A castle once stood in the townland of Barry, within the parish of Taghshinny, but it has all but vanished - the records note that scarcely any traces are left. It is a common enough story across the Irish midlands: a tower or bawn that mattered locally for a century or two, then was robbed for its stone or simply let fall. There is nothing to visit and nothing signposted. It is mentioned here only so you know the name carries more history than the empty fields let on.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

Taghshinny church and graveyard There is no waymarked trail in the parish - the walk is the old Church of Ireland and its graveyard. Read the bellcote with its fleur-de-lis finial, find the Van Nost monument to Judge Gore of 1753 inside, and take your time among the headstones, the earliest from 1684. Quiet, rural, and worth a slow half hour if the church is open. Check locally for access.

Under 1 kmdistance

30 minutestime

The Royal Canal and National Famine Way A few kilometres south, the Royal Canal carries both the Royal Canal Greenway and the National Famine Way - a 165 km waymarked walking and cycling route tracing the 1847 famine walk from Strokestown to Dublin, marked by pairs of bronze children's shoes along the way. The stretch between Abbeyshrule and Ballymahon is one of the flattest, quietest and prettiest on the whole canal. This is the real reason to base yourself out here.

Pick your distancedistance

From an hour to a full daytime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The canal towpath dries out and the south-Longford farming country greens up. A good time for the graveyard and a long flat walk on the Famine Way.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings for cycling the Royal Canal Greenway, and the Glebe House lawns at their best. Ballymahon ten minutes away covers food and a pint.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Soft light on the old limestone and the canal at its quietest. Mild walking weather and almost no one about.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, flat low-lying ground that holds the wet, and nothing open in the parish itself. Come only if you are staying at the Glebe House and want the silence.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Looking for a village

Taghshinny is a church parish, not a village with a street. There is no shop, no cafe and no pub. The offer is the church and graveyard, a bed at the Glebe House, and the canal a few kilometres south. For shops and a pint, drive the ten minutes to Ballymahon.

The fox in the name

It is tempting to read Taghshinny as the house of the fox (sionnach), and you will see that floating about. The placename records make it Teach Sinche, the house of Sineach - a saint's name - which is why the church site is so old. No foxes. A saint.

Hunting the castle at Barry

A castle is recorded in the townland of Barry but scarcely a trace survives. It is not signposted, not maintained and not visitable. Enjoy the history of the name; do not drive out expecting a ruin.

Getting there.

By car

On the R399 about 5 km north-east of Ballymahon, in the south-east of County Longford. Ballymahon is the nearest town for fuel, shops and food, ten minutes south-west. Longford town is about 25 minutes north on local roads and the N4.

By bus

No direct service to the parish. Ballymahon has Bus Eireann and TFI Local Link connections; check current Local Link Longford Westmeath Roscommon timetables and start from there.

By train

No station. The nearest railway is Edgeworthstown, on the Dublin Connolly to Sligo line, roughly 25 minutes away by car.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is about 2 hours by road. Knock (NOC) is roughly 1 hour 45 minutes for western arrivals.