Ballinamore
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| Ballinamore Béal an Átha na Móir |
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| Town population: | 687 (2002) |
| Rural population: | 997 (2002) |
| Elevation: | 74 m |
| County: | Leitrim |
| Province: | Connacht |
Ballinamore (Béal an Atha Moir) is a small town in County Leitrim Lying 15 miles with the border of Northern Ireland. It is known through its Gaelic interpretation as the ‘mouth of the big ford’. This is because it was the main crossing point of the Yellow River that runs through the bottom of the town. This waterway become known a the Ballinamore/Ballyconnell canal, built to link the Rivers Erne and Shannon in the 1840’s and recently changed again to the Shannon-Erne Waterway. The history of Ballinamore has enabled it to grow through the centuries as a town with a large variety of trades and Tradesmen. In the 18th Century, settlers from County Down were dispossessed by landowners travelled to the west of Ireland looking for new habitats. They stopped in an area of land they found suitable notably for it’s location near the rivers Shannon and Erne. This was the origins of Ballinamore. These dispossessed people brought with them numerous skills such as Blacksmiths, Tinsmiths, skilled craftsmen and farmers. This abundance of skills became a distinctive feature of the town through the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Coming to Ballinamore from Ballyconnell you enter High Street which itself merges into Main Street. This is the main jugular of the town with a variety of small side streets. A small bridge over the Shannon-Erne Waterway brings you further into Leitrim and Western Ireland.
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