Fintona (; ), is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retain ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. Its population at the 2011 Census was 1,164.

Name and etymology

Fintona is derived phonetically from the Irish name of the area, ''Fionntamhnach''; this is often translated to mean "white field" however other meanings have been recorded due to various English translations for "fionn" and "tamhnach". "Fionn" may refer to a colour that is described as white, bright, blonde or fair-coloured, while "tamhnach" may refer to a field, clearing, oasis, grassy upland or arable place in a mountain. In the past, the English spelling of the area has varied, with ''"Findonagh"'' in use as recently as 1937 in

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

documents, while ''"Fentonagh"'' and ''"Fintonagh"'' were also in use in the 19th century. The current spelling of Fintona has been recorded as first used in 1774.

History

The local area has been known to have had human activity for around 4000 years; there are many burial places, standing stones, stone circles and graves in the area around Fintona. The current village is developed from an Uí Néill fortress built in 1431 and is one of Tyrone's oldest settlements. Some time after the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster ( gle, Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: ''Plantin o Ulstèr'') was the organised colonisation ('' plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the se ...

, by 1668 the dominant landowners in the area was the Eccles Family and their Manor House, which was located in what is nowadays Fintona Golf Club and Ecclesville Park on the Ecclesville Demesne, was built in 1703. As in many othe