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Ederney (Irish: Eadarnaidh) is a village in County Fermanagh located in the tranquil Glendarragh Valley on the edge of two townlands Ederney and Drumkeen, Northern Ireland, just over 2 miles from Lower Lough Erne near Kesh. It is situated 83 miles from Belfast, over 100 miles from Dublin and centrally located sixteen miles from both provincial towns of Omagh and Enniskillen. Ederney and its environs boast a population of several thousand people. There is a townhall, children's playground, pitch and putt course, tennis court, and football park within the village.
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| Local historic sites include Drumskinney Stone Circle and the Deer Park (Kilterney), which is an ancient religious settlement. Ederney's old Townhall, the Glendarragh Wishing Well and St. Joseph's Church are also interesting landmarks that particularly characterize the village and surrounding area.
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Traditionally Ederney was the most thriving village of the three in the Glendarragh Valley. As a village it arose as a crossing place in the middle of the valley which tended to flood freely in times of heavy rain. At Ederney the main road from Enniskillen via Irvinestown towards Castlederg and Derry crossed the river here where the firm ground made the passage easier.
The name Ederney is said to come from the Gaelic word for "ambush". River crossings were always a good place to set up an ambush and especially if the local topography funneled travellers into a relatively narrow pass as it does here. There is also an alternative and much more ancient possible meaning for the name of the village; on the first ever known map of Ireland, that of the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, there is a tribe marked just north of the Erne as the Erdini. It is more than possible that the name Ederney is the only surviving trace of that ancient tribe recorded more than 2,000 years ago.
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Ederney Map 2002 This unusual map was produced by Leo Mulligan in order to capture Ederney's present and past at the start of the 21st century. The demography of the area is richly recorded and includes landmarks and place-names from the past that have been so much part of Ederney's history.
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First Ordnance Survey Map 1832 of Ederney: This map shows the geography of the area approximately 175 years ago. Please note that route into Ederney from Enniskillen was via the Back Street renamed New Street in later years. Also, the present Lack Road doesn't exist and the route to Omagh was via the old toll gates over the hill behind Seamus Carron's house at Edenclaw Little. The Castlederg Road at the time was via the Killygarry Road meeting up at Drumbarron close to Gerry McDonagh's house and continued through Gushedy More and Rotten Mountain townlands joining up with the present main route at Scraghey. There is one school house and that is located in what is now Martin Maguire's back yard. The RC Church known as Black Bog Chapel is located about half-a-mile north of the village in the townland of Monavreece (sometimes spelled Moneyvriece). |
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