Ballyshannon

This new historical atlas explores the town of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal from its origins to the present day. It traces the town’s development from a fording point and O’Donnell stronghold, through its nineteenth-century heyday as a thriving port and market town with international trading connections, into the twenty-first century. The volume includes large-format reproductions of historic maps, views and photographs from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, as well as specially created thematic maps. A gazetteer of over 680 sites and an accompanying essay provide a detailed topographical history of the town up to c. 1900.The Irish Historic Towns Atlas is a long-term research programme of the Royal Irish Academy. Since publication began in 1986, thirty-two atlases of Irish towns and cities, north and south, have been published. The atlases are produced following basic principles, making it possible to compare and contrast places with one another. Ballyshannon now joins the north-western town of Sligo and city of Derry, as well as over 600 European towns and cities produced as part of a wider International scheme. See www.ihta.ie for more information.Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 32, Ballyshannon/Béal Átha Seanaidh, by Angela Byrne is published by the Royal Irish Academy and has been supported by Donegal County Council and The Heritage Council as part of the implementation of the County Donegal Heritage Plan. Maps produced in association with Tailte Éireann.