Parish Townlands

Townlands turn up in Irish research and nowhere else. It is easy enough to gather some basic facts about townlands. You will quickly learn that they are important for research because certain records were collected or recorded with townland as the basic division. Townlands are an ancient land unit and once numbered more than 60,000. However, finding them on maps can sometimes be difficult.

The townland existed long before the 14th century, perhaps from as early as the 1100s. It was a meaningful entity, and it was how a small, local community identified itself. Townlands seemed to derive from what defined a family holding, and in some rural areas until recent times, the townland name was the postal address.
Boundaries of townlands were expressed in terms of notable natural or man-made features of the landscape, such as hilltops, rivers and streams, walls, or roads, and very often it was these features that became the names of townlands. Landmarks, trees, plants, and animals all appear among the names; Eglish (church), Fofanny (thistle place), and Rosnamuck (wood of the pigs).

The townland is the smallest administrative division, and all other divisions are made up of townlands. Anywhere from five to 30 townlands comprise one civil parish. In other words, size varies from the smallest, which is less than two acres, to the largest-more than 7,000 acres. This is an indication of land quality: the better land was divided into smaller townlands.

Annaghdown Townlands

How Irish Place Names Became What They Are Today

In ancient Ireland a single plough was supposed to turn up 120 Irish acres in the year and this was called a ploughland. There were twelve ploughlands in a Townland, and thirty Townlands were equal to a Tuatha, There were 184 tuatha in Ireland. This has changed through the ages and nowadays the smallest Townland in Ireland consists of just over one acre and the largest over 7000 acres.

However around the 1830’s the English politicians who ruled this land decided that poor ould Ireland was in dire need of a proper Ordinance survey map of all its counties. A problem of Irish Townlands and placenames arose. How could map reader who could neither speak or read Irish pronounce or understand the name of any place here?. It was decided that a new Anglacised (Englishified) versions of the original Irish name would be adopted so that an Englishman could (a) read the new placename (b) Pronounce what he read and, within reason (c) the new name would sound similar to the old Irish name. If this was not possible then it could be changed to something else entirely. This task was given to a top Irish scholar, John O'Donovan. Six versions of the townland name was sought from people of some education and literacy and usually included the local landowner and Parish Priest. The original Irish name and the translation were noted. O'Donovan then chose phonetic English spellings of the old Irish placenames so that they would sound as near as possible to the original when carefully pronounced rather than when in slurred rapid speech and that is how we have the placenames as they are today.

The original documents used to decide the final names are still available in all County Libraries as the ‘Index to the Ordnance Survey’.

Civil Divisions

The civil divisions are described below starting from the smallest unit of land.

Townland : This is the smallest unit of land area used in Ireland. The area varies in size from less than ten acres to several thousand acres. Despite their name, these units do no contain towns, indeed some have no occupants at all. There are around 64,000 townlands in Ireland, and they are the most specific "address" usually available for rural dwellers. They are generally organized into civil parishes.

Civil Parishes : These are important units for record purposes. They generally contain around twenty-five to thirty townlands as well as towns and villages. There are around 2,500 civil parishes in the country. The guides to church records list the parishes in each county, and they are also shown in the accompanying maps. Parishes are generally listed within each county although they may be divided by barony. In many cases civil parishes straddle county and barony boundaries.

Barony : A barony is a portion of a county of a group of civil parishes. Historically it was introduced by the Anglo-Normans and is usually based on a tribal territory or "tuatha." Barony boundaries do not always conform to those of the civil parishes within them. There are 273 baronies in Ireland.

County : The county is a major and consistent division. The counties were gradually established by the English since the arrival of the Normans. The first counties-Dublin, Kildare, and Louth-were established in the early thirteenth century, whereas the last counties, those of Ulster, were not established until after 1600. There are thirty-two counties, and these are formed into four provinces.

Province : The four provinces of Ireland are Connaught, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. Each comprises a number of counties.

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