Seskinore or Seskanore () is a small

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 ...

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 retai ...

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. Nort ...

. It is northeast of

Fintona Fintona (; ), is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. 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 trans ...

and southeast of

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city Belfast is 68 m ...

. The village had a population of 162 in the 2001 Census.

Geography

The name ''Seskinore'' is derived from the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

''Seisceann Mhór'', which means "big marsh/bog", and the area to the north on the way to Omagh is characterised by lowland raised bog. Pike's ''Province of Ulster'' (1909) described the area thus: "The country is undulating with bogs in parts which make hunting difficult". Seskinore Forest, north of the village, is a mixed broadleaf and coniferous woodland which dates from at least 1833.

History

Little is known about the origins of the village but there is proof that it existed in the early part of the 17th century when at least two of its inhabitants were listed as paying

Hearth Tax A hearth tax was a property tax in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on wealth. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, or fireplaces, within a municipal area and is ...

. Following the marriage of Mary Perry to Alexander McClintock in 1781, the village became the family seat of the McClintock family, who had settled in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

in 1597 from

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The McClintock family were enthusiastic huntsmen and in 1860 they established the "Tyrone Hunt", which was renamed the "Seskinore Hunt" in 1886.

Schools

The village has one

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, McClintock Primary School, which is at the south end of the Main Street on land donated by Lt. Col. John Knox McClintock. Building of the school began in 1900 and it opened in 1902. It was originally known as Seskinore No.2 National School as there was also at one time a Chapel School.

Churches

Even though it is a small village, Seskinore has three

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

es: * Seskinore Parish Church (

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 secon ...

) also known as the ''Chapel of Ease'' Previously a school house on the McClintock Estate, situated at the junction of the Beragh and Omagh Roads, served as a place of worship for members of the Church of Ireland in the Seskinore area for the greater part of the 19th Century. In 1890 the McClintock family build the present Chapel of Ease. The church has a fine picturesque woodland setting and was built as a Chapel of Ease to the Parish Church at Clogherny. * Seskinore

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Church The church holds the distinction of being the oldest religious edifice in the village having been built c. 1827. The congregation here was called Newtownparry after the original name of the village. The General Assembly in 1898 granted a request that the name be changed to Seskinore Presbyterian Church. * St. Malachy's Church (

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

) The Catholic Church in the village was originally a dwelling house which was purchased, in 1839, by the Catholic Community and was enlarged and fitted out as a place of worship. Extensive repairs were carried out c.1906 and it has remained substantially unchanged since.

Notable people

* Rose Kavanagh from Killadroy - Editor, writer, poet; ''Uncle Remus'' in ''The Irish Fireside Club'' (

Freeman's Journal The ''Freeman's Journal'', which was published continuously in Dublin from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading nationalist newspaper. Patriot journal It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with rad ...

); part of the Gaelic Revival and the

Irish Literary Revival The Irish Literary Revival (also called the Irish Literary Renaissance, nicknamed the Celtic Twilight) was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. It includes works of poetry, music, art, and literature. O ...

References

External links

Seskinore
{{authority control Villages in County Tyrone