Butlersbridge (), also Butler's Bridge, is a village in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, north of

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

town just off the N3

national primary road A national primary road () is a road classification in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of road has the pr ...

. It was previously a through-point on the N3, but was bypassed in 1999. The bridge in the village crosses the River Annalee, a tributary of the

River Erne The River Erne ( , or ''An Éirne'') in the northwest of the island of Ireland, is the second-longest river in Ulster, flowing through Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and forming part of their border. Course The Erne rises on ...

. Butlersbridge Church is dedicated to the local St. Aiden. It is about via the N54 to the border with

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

History

The history of the Butlersbridge dates back around 6000 years to the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

when farming arrived. The area fell within the domains of the O’Reilly clan until the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ) was the organised Settler colonialism, colonisation (''Plantation (settlement or colony), plantation'') of Ulstera Provinces of Ireland, province of Irelandby people from Great ...

started in the early 17th Century which resulted in the O'Reillys having their lands confiscated. The lands around Butlersbridge were given to an English tenant called Sir Stephen Butler, after whom the town is named.

St Aiden's Church

Butlersbridge's parish church is St Aidan's which was designed by the architect William Hague Jr. (1836–1899). It was built adjacent to the river Annalee on a site donated by the Earl of Lanesborough. Work commenced in 1860 and the church was dedicated on 14 June 1863. The church cost £1,440 to build. The two shades of limestone used to build the church are typical of Hague's designs.

Annagh Lake

Annagh Lake is near Butlersbridge and forms part of the drainage system of the

. The lake has a fishery which is stocked with both

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

Sports

Butlersbridge has a GAA club, Butlersbridge Emmett's, which was founded in 1888. The club has won a number of Cavan Junior Championships at

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

. They also won the Cavan Intermediate Championships in 2021.

Folk village

In 1977, the owners of the Derragarra Inn in Butlersbridge created a folk village as a tourist attraction.

Gallery

File:August 2003 139w.jpg, Butlersbridge File:August 2003 133w.jpg, River Annalee at Butlersbridge File:Cottage in Butlersbridge,Cavan.jpg, Cottage in Butlersbridge

References

External links

Butlersbridge Online
{{County Cavan Towns and villages in County Cavan