Belturbet (; ) is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It lies on the N3 road, around north of Cavan town and from Dublin. It is also located around south of the border with Northern Ireland, between the counties of Cavan and Fermanagh, and from Enniskillen. History Belturbet's location is historically one of the best places for crossing the River Erne. It was the capital of the Kingdom of East Breifne which was an historic kingdom of Ireland roughly corresponding to County Cavan that existed from 1256 to 1607. When the Anglo-Normans tried to conquer Cavan in the early 13th century, Walter de Lacy built a motte-and-bailey on Turbet Island. The fort was probably made of wood and has not survived, although the steep mound of earth where it was built can still be seen. In the late 16th century the local O'Reilly chieftains built a castle opposite Turbot Island, but this has not survived either. As part of the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century, the lands around Belturbet were granted to the English "undertaker" Stephen Butler. He soon established a thriving urban centre, whose prosperity relied heavily on its position on the Erne. The town was seized by the Irish during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and was the site of one of the massacres of planters, in which over two dozen people were thrown from the town's bridge and drowned. In March 1653, under Viscount Magennis of Iveagh, it was the last town in Ireland to fall to Cromwell; the final Irish stronghold at nearby Cloughoughter held out for a further month. The town also acquired an English garrison in the late 17th century. Many of the original fortifications are in good repair. Belturbet retains much of its original layout. The main street leads to the square or 'diamond' where all of the town's important buildings are situated. The Church of Ireland church dominates the skyline; some of it dates from the early 17th century, and it was one of the first Anglican churches built in Ireland, reputedly using materials from Drumlane Abbey. The proto-Quaker leader, William Edmundson, was detained in Belturbet in the 1650s, and put in the stocks. The church was damaged by lightning in the 1720s. Belturbet was represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1611 to 1800. It was a rotten borough in the control of the Earl of Lanesborough.