Loughorne

Written by Adrian Murdock

Thursday, 05 July 2007

Loughorne is one of the 23 townlands that make up the Parish of Newry, Co.Down.  It is bordered by Shinn, Castlenigan, Carnacally, Lisserboy, Ringbane, Tullymurry & Aughnacavan.  It is an area which has seen many changes over the centuries, which has given it a rich legacy of history stretching into the distant past. The townland is of an underlating surface with fertile soil which bears good crops of wheat, oats, barley and potatoes etc.  It is on a subtratum of reddish clay, which up until the 1900s was much used for manure.  The land rises gently from its edges, the west end of which is a muddy bottom and the east gravelly. Loughorne takes its name from the lake found at its North end.  It is said that a monster once lived in it and had a regrettable habit of ravaging the barley fields around.  Thus "Barley lake" in its translation "Loch - eorna" gives us Loughorne.  In its heyday the Lake contained 51 acres, 28 in the Parish of Donaghmore, the remainder in Newry.  It containe dPike & eel and in the Summer was frequented by swans.  The Martin family, who lived close by, probably went out boating, as a boathouse use to stand in their lawn. The famous John Mitchel often lay on its banks, with his children playing and rolling over him. Sadly the lake has long since disappeared, probably being drained in the early 1900s, to provide farmland, unfortunately today, it is bogland, yet provides great wildlife habitat.