Ballinrobe Historic Buildings

Ballinrobe was the oldest town in what is now County Mayo and trading well before c. 1200. The Vikings visited and pillaged the area before the Normans arrived c 1260’s.

Just click on film at end of article which was funded by Ballinrobe Smarter Travel

Take a look at the following buildings and try to imagine what a thriving and busy place the town was in the 1800’s with both an Infantry and Cavalry Barracks as well as all the businesses that were thriving in and around Ballinrobe including:

The old Mill on the bank’s of the Robe River, extended c 1850’s with Robe House c 1580 and extended pre 1630’s and home to the local landlords, the Kenny Family (in the background)

The Canal created c 1845/50 (and now known as The Bower’s Riverside Walk) to power the new larger mill and link Ballinrobe to Galway and the Atlantic beyond through Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. Work ceased when the prospect of rail travel appeared plus problems with the canal base between the two Loughs.

Cranmore House c 1833 home of the well-know historian Herbert T. Knox MRIA, FRSAI, who wrote amongst other books The History of County Mayo to the Close of the 16th century. He was the third son of Charles Knox of Ballinrobe, who would later be High Sheriff of County Mayo in 1860 and a Colonel in the North Mayo Militia. Charles’s eldest son build Creagh House i c 1870’s.

St Mary’s Church of Ireland rebuilt on the site of an earlier Christian Church which was probably sacked in Viking times

The Augustine Abbey c 1337

The largest collection of Harry Clarke original stained-glass windows at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church

The new Ballinrobe Castle, in the Green originally a tower house, then extended and converted to a manor house in perceived peaceful times c 1700’s, then converted to a Cavalry Barracks c 1830’s housing over 80 soldiers, plus their officers, blacksmiths, cooks, shoe-makers, saddlers plus many more staff and their stables. The Infantry Barracks is located at the other end of the Green with the large space in between used for military training.

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