Lilliput (or Nure) is a
townland in
County Westmeath
"Noble above nobility"
, image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state, Country
, subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland
, subdivision_type1 = Provinces o ...
,
Ireland. It is located five miles (8 kilometres) south of
Mullingar and lies at the southern end of
Lough Ennell
Lough Ennell () is a lake near the town of Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. It is situated beside the N52 road, off the Mullingar/ Kilbeggan road. The lake is part of the Lough Ennell Special Protection Area. It is long by wide, with an ...
.
Lilliput covers an area of 244
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
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Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
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s and was recorded with a population of 22.
Lilliput is one of 11 townlands in the
civil parish of
Dysart, in the
Barony Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
of
Moycashel.
It lies in the
electoral division of Middleton of the
Longford-Westmeath constituency (formerly of the
Westmeath constituency.
Lilliput is associated with
Jonathan Swift, writer of
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
.
Local tradition states that Swift was in a boat on the lake, and when he looked back to shore he noticed how small the people looked at that distance. This was the inspiration for the diminutive
Lilliputians
Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island nations that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbours in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel wide. Both a ...
, who feature in his most famous book ''
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
''. Lilliput at the time was called "Nure": however after the publication of ''Gulliver's Travels'' locals began to refer to the lakeshore as "Lilliput". The name stuck and the area was renamed during the 18th century.
[Discover Ireland – The Belvedere Trail]
: retrieved 23 September 2020
There is also an early Christian association, in that
St. Patrick
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
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's sister, Lupita, is known to the Lilliput area, which may also recall her name.
[
Lilliput is the site of Lilliput House, built in the 18th century, and now home to the Lilliput Adventure Centre; it lies in what is now the Jonathan Swift Amenity Park. Lilliput House]
retrieved 23 September 2020
References
{{reflist
Townlands of County Westmeath