1. Drummully ('the Sixteen Townlands')

The south-western part of the Finn River cuts Drummully off from the rest of County Monaghan. Drummully, also known as 'the Sixteen Townlands' or 'Coleman's Island', is a small district that is a pene-enclave of County Monaghan (part of the Republic of Ireland) almost entirely surrounded by County Fermanagh (part of Northern Ireland). Only a tiny stretch of the Finn River flows through Drummully, the river flowing along the southern edge of Annaghraw, a townland in the far south of the district. All roads leading into the district of Drummully go via County Fermanagh. The Cavan Road, also known locally as 'the Concession Road'^[1] (part of the N54 / A3), the main Cavan Town to Clones road, also runs through Drummully.

The Civil Parish of Drummully (Dartree Portion) is co-extensive with the district of Drummully, this civil parish being entirely within County Monaghan.^[2][3] However, the Parish of Drummully in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Clogher covers a much larger area than the district of Drummully, as did the former Parish of Drummully in the Catholic Diocese of Clogher.^[1][4] The Catholic Parish of Drummully was absorbed into the Parish of Clones in the twentieth-century.^[5] The district and the various types of parish (both civil and ecclesiastical) are named after the Drummully Monastic Site.^[3] This monastic site and ruined former parish church are on a hilltop in the townland of Drummully, just inside County Fermanagh, very near Wattlebridge. The townland of Drummully is on the south-western edge of the district of Drummully.

 

Map showing the district of Drummully, also known as 'the Sixteen Townlands'. The boundaries of the district are outlined in red, with the rest of the County Fermanagh-County Monaghan border being outlined in purple. The district is almost entirely surrounded by County Fermanagh. The Finn River cuts the district off from the rest of County Monaghan. By openstreetmap - https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/6984710#map=13/54.1480/-7.2759, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81651772

2. Bridges

The Finn River passes under a number of bridges on its way to Upper Lough Erne. Most of these bridges were built in the mid- to late eighteenth-century or sometime in the nineteenth-century. A number of these bridges span the river in and around Roslea, a village which is surrounded on three sides by the Finn. These bridges include Lisnawesnagh Bridge, constructed of stone and located on a sideroad just north-east of Roslea. They also include three bridges on the edge of Roslea itself, including the old bridge on the southern edge of Roslea, which carries the sideroad to Clones across the Finn.^[6] New Bridge, a small concrete bridge built in the twentieth-century, is located just over a mile south-south-west of Roslea, carrying the Clogh Road, a sideroad, across the Finn on the south-western edge of Spring Grove Forest. The Clogh Road joins the Roslea to Clones road beside this bridge.

A small sideroad known locally as 'the Gorry Lane' is beside New Bridge, part of the 'lane' being on the edge of Spring Grove Forest.^[7] This 'lane' runs up over the drumlins overlooking the Finn River, running from New Bridge to a junction on the sideroad between Clogh and Stonebridge, 'the Gorry Lane' crossing from County Fermanagh into County Monaghan. The 'lane' runs just to the west and south of Rathkeevan Lough.

Other bridges over the Finn include: Stone Bridge, built in the early nineteenth-century and located in the hamlet of Stonebridge, between Clones and Smithborough, which carries the N54 across the Finn;^[8] Analore Bridge, parts of which date from c. 1720 and which carries the R183 across the river, located in the hamlet of Analore, between Clones and Newbliss;^[9] The now ruined Ballynure Railway Bridge, which formerly carried the railway across the river just outside Analore; Cumber Bridge, constructed c. 1800, between Scotshouse and Clones, which carries the R212 across the river;^[10] Annies Bridge, which crosses from County Fermanagh to County Monaghan very near the Hilton Park Demesne, just outside Scotshouse;^[11] Ballyhoe Bridge, on a sideroad between Redhills and Clones, which crosses the river just inside Fermanagh, not far from Clogher Market; Finn Bridge, also known as Annaghmullin Bridge, built in the late 1850s,^[12][13] which links County Monaghan to County Fermanagh, but is located very near Redhills; Gortnacarrow Bridge, which was built in the mid-eighteenth-century^[14] and carries the Cavan Road (part of the A3) over the Finn near Wattlebridge; and the bridge at Wattlebridge itself, near the mouth of the river.^[15] All these bridges are built of stone.

There are two bridges at Derrykerrib, both of which are modern, concrete structures, located slightly to the north of the Finn River's mouth. These bridges are right beside each other, the older of the two dating from the late twentieth-century, while the newer bridge was completed in 2018.^[16][17] These bridges carry a sideroad from the Fermanagh mainland across a narrow channel of Upper Lough Erne and onto Derrykerrib Island. A new navigation channel was also cut in 2017 and 2018, when the new Derrykerrib Bridge was being built. The new bridge spans this channel, which was cut on the Derrykerrib shore of Upper Lough Erne. This new channel allows boats to sail, via the Finn River, as far as the jetty at Castle Saunderson in County Cavan. The entrance to the now derelict Ulster Canal is beside the Derrykerrib Bridges, being just north of them.^[6][18]

Ballynure Viaduct is located immediately south of Analore.^[19][20] This small former railway viaduct, now derelict, is on the edge of the Ballynure Demesne, a former demesne that surrounds Ballynure House, which is also derelict.^[21][22] The current viaduct was built in the 1920s, largely replacing a Victorian viaduct that had been built in the 1850s.^[20] The viaduct carried the railway across a small ornamental lake beside the main entrance into the demesne.^[20] While the viaduct does not cross the Finn River, it is located very close to the river. What remains of Ballynure Railway Bridge is a short distance from the viaduct. This now ruined bridge formerly carried the railway across the Finn.

Annaghraw Railway Bridge is a now ruined bridge right beside Annaghmullin Bridge. It formerly carried the main railway line from Cavan Town to Clones, via Ballyhaise and Redhills, across the Finn, taking the railway across from both County Monaghan and County Cavan into County Fermanagh. This railway line closed in the late 1950s.^[23] Not far from both Annaghmullin Bridge and Annaghraw Railway Bridge is Nancy's Bridge, a road bridge in the townland of Annaghraw in the district of Drummully, County Monaghan. Nancy's Bridge was built in the late 1850s or early 1860s and carried a sideroad over the Cavan Town to Clones railway line, very near the Finn River.^[24]

 

The former Annaghraw Railway Bridge, as photographed from Annaghmullin Bridge. The Finn River can be seen flowing under the ruined bridge, with County Fermanagh on the left and County Monaghan on the right. Parts of the river now form a tiny part of the external border of the European Union. By Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93366426

3. Ulster Canal

The most south-western stretch of the Ulster Canal runs very close to the Finn River, from just south of Stonebridge in West Monaghan all the way to near Wattlebridge in south-east Fermanagh.^[6] The canal was largely built between 1830 and 1841.^[25][26] In places, the now derelict and disused canal runs right alongside the river, being carried across the river on an aqueduct at one location.^[27] The Upper Lough Erne entrance to the canal is on a narrow channel of the lough at Edergool, a townland in County Fermanagh that is directly opposite Derrykerrib Island.^[18] The canal entrance is right beside the Derrykerrib Bridges, being just to the north of the bridges, only a short distance to the north of the Finn River's mouth. The Ulster Canal was closed in 1931.^{[28][29][30][31]}

4. Drummully Church, Graveyard and Monastic Site

On a small hilltop overlooking the south-western end of the Finn River, very near Wattlebridge, is Drummully Monastic Site.^[6][32] The site, which is in the townland of Drummully and is just inside County Fermanagh, is right beside Clogher Market, being very close to Gortnacarrow Bridge. The church here was probably dedicated to Saint Mochomma originally, and was later under the authority of the Ó Gabhann (O'Gowan or Goan) dynasty, who held the hereditary position of airchinnech (erenagh) of this area in later Gaelic times.^[32][33] An Early Christian site, Drummully later developed into a small monastery and parish church in the Medieval Era. The church on the site was ruined by the early 1620s.^[32] The site has been used as a graveyard for several centuries, while what remains of the medieval church on this site has long been in ruins.^[14] The Parish of Drummully and the district of Drummully are named after this monastic site.^[3]

Nearby are the two 'successor churches' of the original Drummully Church. Both these Victorian churches were completed in 1844 and are just inside County Monaghan. St. Alphonsus's Church is in an area known as the Connons, and was built in the early 1840s,^[34][35] just before the outbreak of the Great Famine. This church, often known locally as Connons Chapel, was built in a version of the Gothic Revival style and is the modern-day local Catholic church. Built as a parish church, Connons Chapel ceased to have this status when the Catholic Parish of Drummully was absorbed into the Parish of Clones in the twentieth-century.^[5][35] The Parish of Clones is part of the Catholic Diocese of Clogher, just like the former Parish of Drummully was.

A short distance away, in the townland of Clonooney in County Monaghan, is St. Mary's Church, the modern-day parish church for the Parish of Drummully in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Clogher. This Gothic Revival church was also built in the early 1840s,^[36][37] and is located right alongside the N54. St. Mary's is also known as Drummully Church of Ireland Church or Drummully Parish Church. Connons Chapel and St. Mary's Church are both within the Drummully pene-enclave.^[1]