Historical land divisions and etymology Townland

a road sign in county antrim, northern ireland, noting part of road lies within teeshan townland



a (rare) townland boundary marker in inishowen, county donegal.



townland sign in irish baile na coirce (ballycuirke), moycullen, county galway, gaeltacht townland.

throughout of ulster townlands known ballyboes (irish: baile bó, meaning cow land ), , represented area of pastoral economic value. in county cavan similar units called polls , , in counties fermanagh , monaghan known tates or taths . these names appear of english origin, had become naturalised long before 1600. in modern townland names prefix pol- found throughout western ireland, accepted meaning being hole or hollow . in county cavan, contains on half of townlands in ulster prefix pol-, should better translated poll of ... . modern townlands prefix tat- confined exclusively diocese of clogher, covers counties fermanagh , monaghan, , barony of clogher in county tyrone), , cannot confused other irish word.

in county tyrone following hierarchy of land divisions used: ballybetagh (irish: baile biataigh, meaning victualler s place ), ballyboe , sessiagh (irish: séú cuid, meaning sixth part of quarter), gort , quarter (irish: ceathrú). in county fermanagh divisions ballybetagh , quarter , tate . further subdivisions in fermanagh appear related liquid or grain measures such gallons , pottles , pints .

in ulster ballybetagh territorial unit controlled irish sept, typically containing around 16 townlands. fragmentation of ballybetaghs resulted in units consisting of four, 8 , twelve townlands. 1 of these fragmented units, quarter , representing quarter of ballybetagh, universal land denomination recorded in survey of county donegal conducted in 1608. in 17th century 20 per cent of total area of western ulster under control of church. these termon lands consisted likewise of ballybetaghs , ballyboes, held erenaghs instead of sept leaders.

other units of land division used throughout ireland include:

in county tipperary, capell lands , quatermeers . capell land consisted of around 20 great acres (one great acre equalled 20 english acres).
in province of connacht, quarters , cartrons (irish: ceathrú mír, anglicised carrowmeer ), quarter being reckoned 4 cartrons, , each cartron being 30 acres. quarter has been anglicised carrow , carhoo or caracute (irish: ceathrú cuid).
in county clare, in connacht, quarters , half-quarters (irish: leath-ceathrú), cartrons , sessiagh . here half-quarter equated around 60 acres, cartron equated around 30 acres , sessiagh around 20 acres.

cartrons called ploughlands or seisreagh (irish: seisreach, meaning team of horses yoked plough).

thomas larcom, first director of ordnance survey of ireland, made study of ancient land divisions of ireland , summarised traditional hierarchy of land divisions thus:

10 acres – 1 gneeve; 2 gneeves – 1 sessiagh; 3 sessiaghs – 1 tate or ballyboe; 2 ballyboes – 1 ploughland, seisreagh or carrow; 4 ploughlands – 1 ballybetagh, or townland; 30 ballybetaghs – triocha céad or barony.

this hierarchy not applied uniformly across ireland. example, ballybetagh or townland contain more or less 4 ploughlands. further confusion arises when taken account that, while larcom used general term acres in summary, terms such great acres , large acres , small acres used in records. writing in 1846, larcom remarked large , small acres had no fixed ratio between them, , there various other kinds of acre in use in ireland, including irish acre, english acre, cunningham acre, plantation acre , statute acre. ordnance survey maps used statute acre measurement. quality , situation of land affected size of these acres. cunningham acre given intermediate between irish , english acres.

many of these land division terms have been preserved in names of modern townlands. example, term cartron in both english , irish forms has been preserved in townland names of carrowmeer, cartron , carrowvere, while term sessiagh survives in names shesia, sheshodonell, sheshymore , shessiv. terms ballyboe , ballybetagh tend preserved in truncated form of bally prefix townland names, such ballymacarattybeg near poyntzpass, county down. less well-known land division terms may found in other townland names such coogulla (irish: cuige uladh, ulster fifth ), treanmanagh (irish: train meánach, third middle ) , dehomade (irish: deichiú méid, tenth part ).

a problem term bally in townland names can difficult distinguish between irish terms baile meaning townland , béal átha meaning approach ford . example of latter ballyshannon, county donegal, derived béal Átha seanaidh.