Cliffoney, officially Cliffony (), is a village in north County Sligo, Ireland. It lies on the N15 national route at its junction with the R279. It is only three kilometres away from Mullaghmore which is popular with surfers.
Cliffoney has historical connections to Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister and Father Michael O'Flanagan, vice-president and later President of Sinn Féin, who was known as the Republican Priest. Brigid MacGonigal, mother of Harry Clarke, was a native of Cliffoney.
There are several megalithic monuments close to the village, including Creevykeel Court Tomb. There are also several ringforts and cashels in the area. Saint Brigit's well has a cross-slab, probably dating to the eight century, with a swastika carved in the top of the cross.
History
The oldest buildings in Cliffoney are the five megalithic tombs close to the village in the townlands of Creevykeel, Creevymore and Cartronplank. Creevykeel, considered one of the finest examples of its kind in Ireland, was excavated by the Harvard Archaeological Mission in 1935. A second monument close to Creevykeel was destroyed completely by 1890. The chamber and back-stone of Cartronplank court tomb still survives, located on a private farm. The other two monuments are overgrown and on private land.
The Cliffoney megaliths were visited by many antiquarians and researchers, and were illustrated by William Wakeman in 1880. Creevykeel is in state care and is maintained by the Office of Public Works. The other sites are on private property.
Saint Bridget's well and cross
Saint Bridget's well is located on private land close to the village of Cliffoney. The well is located within a large ringfort some 40 meters in diameter which is mostly ploughed out on the south side, but is in good condition on the north side. Beside the well is an early Christian cross-slab known as the Cliffoney Cross, thought to date to the eighth century and contemporary with the many carved slabs on Inishmurray. The well was the site of an ancient cattle fair held annually on 1 February. A shrine with a statue of Saint Bridget was erected in the 1950s.St Brigid's Well is situated in Mrs Timoney's field about four hundred yards from the main road in the vicinity of Cliffoney. It was called St Brigid's Well, because when she was travelling through Connaught she visited and blessed it.In its present state it is difficult to locate it, because it is surrounded by briars. In olden days the people used to come from every district and visit it. They used to go round the Well and said the following prayers Our Father and three Hail Marys.
Lord Palmerston
The lands around Cliffoney were granted to James Byrne after the Cromwellian conquests in the mid-1600s. After 1690 the lands were granted to Sir John Temple. The title Viscount Palmerston was created in 1723. The Palmerston family were absentee landlords, leaving the management of their estates to middlemen. The second Viscount "contributed generously to local charities in Romsey, but he had no feelings of obligation towards his Irish tenants, and never invested any money in his lands in Sligo."
Upon the sudden death of the second Viscount in 1802, the Cliffoney estates were inherited by his oldest son, Henry John Temple, better known as the third Viscount, Lord Palmerston. The young Lord Palmerston visited his Sligo estates, consisting of some 10,000 acres, for the first time in 1808.He found a destitute tenantry renting small plots from middlemen, who set the land to tenants in rundale, a system of communal occupation under which an individual tenant might from time to time hold many tiny detached plots. In the early nineteenth century huge tracts of Ahamlish were destroyed by shifting sands, but Palmerston sought to bring the bogs there, as well as the sands ruined by sand, into cultivation.Palmerston began a building programme, renovating the old Market House which became a hotel, the Cliffoney Inn in 1820. A boys school was built next door in 1824 and a girls school at the north end of the village in 1826, replacing the old hedge school in Ahamlish. Palmerston immediately clashed with the Catholic priest Fr. John McHugh, the priest forbidding children attend either school unless a Catholic teacher was employed.
In further improvements, Alexander Nimmo was engaged to construct a pier in Mullaghmore. While Nimmo was in Cliffoney he designed and constructed apartments for Palmerston over an extension at the back of the Cliffoney Hotel. "Nimmo, the designer of Mullaghmore Harbour supervised extensive renovations to the Inn in 1826 at the cost of £385. 15s. 0d. The refurbishment included provision of a stone staircase, yard, stables and gateway."