Killyleagh, Ireland

                                    Killyleagh is in County Down, Ireland.  It is located on the southwest shore of                                  Strangford  Lough.  This is an area of great beauty, with a breathtaking landscape. 

                                    Sailing is a very popular sport in this village.

                                    The turreted castle was originally built by John de Courcy in 1180.  It was destroyed by                                         General Monk in 1648 and rebuilt by the Hamiltons.  The castle has been in the present                                         owner’s family since 1640. The village grew up around the tower. Harold Nicholson                                         described it over a century ago as “pricking castellated ears above the smoke of its own                                         village and towering like some chateau of the Loire above the tides of Strangford Lough.”                                              Today, it is the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland.

                                        This is the area into which Archibald McKee was born.  Little information is available                                             about what the area was like in the 1700’s, but apparently little has changed throughout                                             the centuries.  What a beautiful area it must have been to live in.  As                                    Archibald and his family must have been to leave for the New World, I can only imagine                                             how they kept wanting to get one last look of their beloved homeland.

Check out these sites for additional information

                                                        For more information on Killyleagh, Ireland

                                              http://ni_towns.tripod.com/killyleagh/introduction-to_killyleagh.html

                                            http://www.fjiordlands.org/strngfrd/killylea.htm

                                                    Pictures of Down County, Ireland

http://www.geographia.com/northern-ireland/ukidwn04.htm

http://www.countydown.com/

More Ireland History

http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/

http://www.ireland.org/irl_hist/default.htm

http://www.ireland.org/

http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/iremaps.htm

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