Jamestown, County Leitrim 3.38

Jamestown is a village on the banks of the River Shannon in the south of County Leitrim, Ireland. It lies some 5 km east-south-east of the county town, Carrick-on-Shannon. It was named after King James VI & I.Jamestown was built as a walled town during the Plantation of Leitrim for early to mid-seventeenth-century English settlers alongside the earlier settlement of Cill Srianáin, which had included an abbey. It used to be on the main Sligo to Dublin road (N4) and was known for the narrow pillars of the arch of the old town gate that straddles the road in the centre of the village. The arch was damaged by a passing lorry in the early 1970s and the top was removed. In recent years at Christmas a lighted skeletal arch has been erected by the local community.Two pubs and a church mark the centre of the village, close to remains of the boundary walls. Jamestown lies beside the Shannon with its own jetty and is a popular stopping point for boats. Navigation for cruisers is not possible downstream of Jamestown, boats being required to use the Jamestown Canal and Albert Lock, which links to the Shannon south of DrumsnaHistoryThe Plantation settlement was created by Royal Charter from King James VI & I in 1621, and was founded in 1622 as a plantation town carrying into action the decision of 1620 to plant County Leitrim with loyal English settlers. It was granted to Sir Charles Coote, a Devonshire Planter, who fortified it with walls twenty feet high and six feet in thickness, enclosing an area of about 4acre which contained a castle. It had an area of 200acre under its liberty.