Turlough, (: in particular, a seasonal lake) is a village in

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, 6 km northeast of

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Developing around a 13th century castle of the de Barry family, de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal poi ...

. It is known for the presence of the Museum of Country Life (part of the National Museum of Ireland), and for its well-preserved and unusually squat round tower, built between 900 and 1200. Turlough is also the name of the surrounding 241-acre

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 origi ...

. It lies along the Castlebar River ( ga, An tSiúir) just off the N5 road, and the countryside around the village is scattered with

standing stones A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

, a

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualities, through the numinous presence of its guar ...

, ''fulachtaí fia'', and ''

cillín A cillín (plural cilliní) are historic burial sites in Ireland, primarily used for stillborn and unbaptized infants. These burial areas were also used for the recently deceased who were not allowed in consecrated churchyards, including the men ...

í''.

FitzGerald family

In the eighteenth century it was the home of a branch of the FitzGerald family, distant cousins to the

Earl of Desmond Earl of Desmond is a title in the peerage of Ireland () created four times. When the powerful Earl of Desmond took arms against Queen Elizabeth Tudor, around 1578, along with the King of Spain and the Pope, he was confiscated from his estates ...

. The most celebrated member of the family was the notably eccentric

George Robert FitzGerald George Robert Fitzgerald, aka Fighting Fitzgerald (c.1748 – 12 June 1786) was a celebrated Irish eccentric, duellist and landowner, who was hanged for conspiracy to murder in 1786. Biography FitzGerald came from Turlough, near Castlebar, ...

, nicknamed "Fighting FitzGerald". Having spent most of his short life gambling and

duelling A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and la ...

, he was hanged for conspiracy to

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

his father's attorney in 1786.

Facilities

Turlough's facilities include a pub ('The Turlough Inn'), a shop, a hair salon, and a lifestyle and garden centre with a restaurant a short distance away. Turlough is also home to a branch of the National Museum of Ireland, the ' Museum of Country Life'.

Gallery

File:TurloughRoundTower.jpg, Round tower and church at Turlough File:Country Life Museum - geograph.org.uk - 113145.jpg, Country Life Museum

References

{{coord, 53, 52, 59.9694, N, 9, 13, 6.3402, W, region:IE-MO_type:city_scale:10000, display=title Towns and villages in County Mayo

FitzGerald family

Facilities

Gallery

See also

References