Killeshandra or Killashandra (Irish: Cill na Seanrátha, meaning 'the church of the old rath or ring-fort'),[2] is a small town or village and civil parish in County Cavan, Ireland.

Killeshandra is located 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Cavan Town and is a "gateway" to the UNESCO Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark region, part of the Erne catchment environment of rivers, lakes, wetlands and woodland.

The church was first noted in Papal registers during the medieval 14th century when installed John McKiernan a cleric from the Augustinian St Mary's Drumlane Priory.

The early Killeshandra town began during the seventeenth century Ulster Plantation period, when Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick Castle, East Lothian, Scotland, was granted lands by the Crown in July 1610 to build a strong bawn and create a Protestant community around the barony of Tullyhunco.

The 1641 rising led to the burning of the township followed by the surrender of the Hamilton's together with their Scottish Craigie neighbours, forced out of their settled lands by the Cavan O'Reilly rebel army.

He set about building a new market town of Killeshandra with Scottish settlers and migrant French Huguenot exiles who were especially noted for their industry linen skills and thrift.

From the early 17th century, the 'church of the old rath' was "reformed" for Protestant Scottish Episcopalian use and included glebe lands allocated by the Hamiltons to the Anglican Kilmore diocese.

The remains of this church form part of a protected monument and, along with the graveyard, enclosure wall and gate piers, can still be seen at the lower end of the town (opposite Lakeland Dairies).

[citation needed] The graveyard includes some 18th- and 19th-century grave slabs, mausoleums and heraldic memorials from Killeshandra families dating to the early 18th century.

Killeshandra was later described in Pigot's 1824 Directory as - "The greatest linen market in the county, and the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood are principally employed in its manufacture".

However, failure to gain support from the major local landlords including Lord Farnham and the Earl Annesley to capitalise on industrial methods of linen production when market sales approached their peak meant that Killeshandra would inevitably lose in the race to compete with the bigger Ulster linen-exporting towns further north, eventually causing hardship and destitution for many local flax growers and linen producers.

[citation needed] In October 2013, Lakeland Dairies purchased the former Ulster Bank premises in Killeshandra town, next door to the company's headquarters.