Thursday Doors – The Grand Finale

We are nearing the grand finale of our virtual tour of Belturbet and how better to start this week’s Thursday Doors than with a lovely street mural of the railway station in it’s busier days. It depicts the narrow and broad gauge tracks in use and is the work of artist Collette Kearny. She was inspired by a picture hanging in The Goods Store, one of the station’s heritage buildings.

Although it can do a lot of damage, doesn’t a bit of foliage turn an old abandoned building into an interesting feature?

This is the where the old Catholic church stood (1836-1956) before the new one was built further up the town. A bungalow stands on the site now and the surrounding wall contains some of the church’s original stone. Those stones came from an old bridge in the town that had been demolished and they were carried on the backs of local people quite a distance, including up a hill, to this site to build the church. They would have all passed away by the time the church was being levelled, so they didn’t have to witness what became of their hard work.

Next we come to one of four schools in the town (three for junior education and one for teenagers). The school’s name and address indicate its historic connections.

Fairgreen school was originally built in 1867, as a two-storey building. The schoolroom was upstairs, and the teacher’s residence downstairs. In 1931 it was rebuilt as a single storey building, with no residential area. Initially still a one-teacher school, it increased to a two-teacher school in 1967. In 2018 it celebrated its 150th anniversary and it’s still going strong. The name Fairgreen comes from the fair which was held on the nearby grassy area or green. It’s where farmers came to buy and sell livestock, in years gone by. The words in Irish on the stone monument roughly translates to We shall never see its like again.

Although the market is no longer held, the stone loading ramp for the animals is still there.

I don’t think this was the original site of the old water pump but it does look nice on the green.

Most of the houses in this area are fairly new but nearer Fairgreen school we’ll find some older ones. I particularly like the single story terrace of railway cottages with their bare stone walls.

This one is appropriately called Railway Cottage.

The end one looks quite orange in this shot but it’s really a vibrant red.

Originally, this terrace was built by a local business for their employees.

The Seven Horseshoes Hotel will hopefully be open again mid-summer.

The marina is a nice place to finish our walk, don’t you think? I noticed two new kids on the block (or should that be ‘dock’)? The bigger modern one is definitely eye-catching and looks very luxurious but the old sage green coloured one below appeals to the retro in me.

Just so you can get a sense of how many lakes there are here, take a look at this map of the countryside surrounding Belturbet. This is only a section of the whole county so I guess there really must be a lake for every day of the year in Cavan, as the saying goes.

If you have stuck with me to the end of the line I hope you enjoyed the grand finale this week and if you fancy exploring a wee bit more, Dan has Thursday Doors galore over on his blog.