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Binghamstown

Field	Value
settlement_type	Townland
official_name	Binghamstown
native_name	An Geata Mór
native_name_lang	ga
image_skyline	Saleen Harbour, Mullet Peninsula - geograph.org.uk - 380446.jpg
image_caption	Saleen Harbour is 1 km south of Binghamstown village
pushpin_map	Ireland
pushpin_label_position	none
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Ireland
coordinates
blank_name_sec1	Irish Grid Reference
blank_info_sec1
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Ireland
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Connacht
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	County Mayo
unit_pref	Metric
area_total_acre	725.6
area_footnotes
population_as_of	2011
population_total	106
population_footnotes

Binghamstown () is a townland and village in County Mayo, Ireland. It lies on the R313 regional road on the Mullet Peninsula, near the town of Belmullet. The townland of Binghamstown has an area of approximately 3 km2, and had a population of 106 people as of the 2011 census. Binghamstown is in the electoral division of An Geata Mór Thuaidh.

History

The townland was originally called Ballymacshedon (the anglicisation of an Irish name), before being renamed Binghamstown after the local landlords. The Bingham family came to the Erris area of County Mayo in the 18th century, and built a large house on the northern reaches of Elly Bay on the Mullet peninsula in 1796. Known as Binghamstown House, this structure was built in castellated style and had outbuildings, offices and gardens. Nothing substantial survives of this building except for low grass covered foundations.

The village itself was built in 1796 by Major Denis Bingham, and it was built essentially as a "landlord village" providing services for the Bingham estate. It was not until 1817 that a main road was constructed into Erris from Castlebar and it was only in 1824 that it finally ran through Binghamstown to the extremity of the peninsula.

In an attempt to keep the Binghamstown fair alive, Major Bingham erected a large gate across the roadway. Those who took their animals out of Binghamstown to the Belmullet fair had to pay a toll as they passed through the gate, giving rise to the Irish name an Geata Mhór (the Big Gate) for Binghamstown.

In A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837 by Samuel Lewis, the fair at Binghamstown is described as taking place on the "first day of every month throughout the year". By the end of the nineteenth century, the fair had declined. Lewis (1837) describes Binghamstown as having a "good view of Saleen bay" where "a landing pier has been erected by the late Fishery Board". The pier at Saleen harbour was built in the 1820s to designs by engineer Alexander Nimmo.

References

(2011). "CD164 - Mayo Population by Private Households, Occupied and Vacancy Rate by Townlands, CensusYear and Statistic". Central Statistics Office.
"An Geata Mór / Binghamstown (see archival records)". Placenames Database of Ireland.
"Binghamstown Townland, Co. Mayo".
"Estate Record: Bingham (Bingham's Castle)". NUI Galway.
"Binghamstown House". NUI Galway.
Lewis, Samuel. (1837). "[[A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland]]". Lewis.
"Curraghboy, An Geata Mór [Binghamstown], County Mayo". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

towns-and-villages-in-county-mayo

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