Killeshandra or Killashandra (), is a village in County Cavan, Ireland. It is west of Cavan Town in the centre of County Cavan's lakeland and geopark region and the Erne catchment environment of rivers, lakes, wetlands and woodland. Together with the Lough Oughter Special Protected Area (SPA), it has been recognised by the EU programme for wildlife Natura 2000 since 2010. Killeshandra is noted by Fáilte Ireland as an "Angling Centre of Excellence", and as a hub for the Cavan Walking Festival which takes place in May each year. There are several looped walking and cycling trails in Killykeen Forest Park. The town is also home to Killeshandra Gaelic Football Club, known locally as the Killeshandra Leaguers. Rockfield Lake, which is popular with anglers, is a few kilometres southwest of the town.
History
Killeshandra owes its name to the Church of the old Ráth (ringfort) . The church was first noted in Papal registers during the medieval 14th century when installed John McKiernan a cleric from the Augustinian St Mary's Drumlane Priory. The early Killeshandra town began during the seventeenth century Ulster Plantation period, when Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick Castle, East Lothian, Scotland, was granted lands by the Crown in July 1610 to build a strong bawn and create a Protestant community around the barony of Tullyhunco. The 1641 rising led to the burning of the township followed by the surrender of the Hamilton's together with their Scottish Craigie neighbours, forced out of their settled lands by the Cavan O'Reilly rebel army.
Following the Restoration period after the civil war, that Sir Francis Hamilton (1st Baron of Castle Hamilton) regained control of the area. He set about building a new market town of Killeshandra with Scottish settlers and migrant French Huguenot exiles who were especially noted for their industry linen skills and thrift. The new settlers and their families quickly adapted to the local conditions, beginning to grow flax and process linen in the Cavan region.
From the early 17th century the 'Church of the Old Rath' was reformed for Protestant Scottish Episcopalian use and included glebe lands allocated by the Hamiltons to the Anglican Kilmore diocese. Later in the century when peace was restored, the church was remodelled after the death in 1688 of Sir Charles (2nd Baron of Castle Hamilton) as a lasting memorial to departed members of the original Scottish Hamilton family. The remains of this church today form part of a protected monument along with the graveyard, enclosure wall & gate piers, can still be seen at the lower end of the town (opposite Lakeland Dairies). When Sir Francis (3rd Baron of Castle Hamilton) died in 1713 he was brought to Newtownards, County Down to be interred together with his (first) wife Lady Catherine Montgomery (died 1692), in a Montgomery family vault. A large marble memorial plaque exists in the present Killeshandra Church of Ireland commemorating the life of Sir Francis Hamilton (3rd Baron of Castle Hamilton) was subscribed to by Sir Francis surviving (2nd) wife Lady Anna Hamilton whom was later remarried in England, to the Governor of Jamaica.
The historic Rath church displays some unusual architectural characteristics; it is T-shaped, with a south-facing transept created in the Renaissance neo-classical style, described in the Pevsner Guide to South Ulster as "arguably the finest Restoration building in Ulster, a handsome evocation of the improving architectural eloquence of the age". The east-facing window is in the more traditional Gothic style. Sir Charles Hamilton (2nd Baron of Castle Hamilton) heraldic embellishment is visible on the south gable wall and gate piers/pillars. When a new Anglican church was built (circa 1842) further up the main street, some of the earlier Hamilton family memorials attributed to well-known Irish sculptor William Kidwell were brought from the old church and placed inside the new building, where they can still be seen. The graveyard continued in "mixed" denomination community use for well over a century after the church was closed and unroofed (c1842). It is now protected by Cavan County Council as a National Monument. The graveyard includes some interesting 18th-19th century grave slabs, mausoleums and heraldic memorials from Killeshandra families dating back to the early 18th century.