Townland: Difference between revisions

 

===Historical land divisions and etymology===

 

Throughout most of [[Ulster]], townlands were known as "ballyboes" ({{lang-ga|baile bó}}, meaning "cow land"),<ref name="PoUpg25">Robinson 2000, p.25</ref><ref name="PoUpg13-14">Robinson 2000, pp. 13–14</ref> and represented an area of pastoral economic value.<ref name="PoUpg25"/> In [[County Cavan]] similar units were called "polls", and in Counties [[County Fermanagh|Fermanagh]] and [[County Monaghan|Monaghan]] they were known as "tates" or "taths".<ref name="Clare"/><ref name="PoUpg25"/><ref name="PoUpg13-14"/> These names appear to be of English origin, but had become naturalised long before 1600.<ref name="PoUpg25"/> In modern townland names the prefix ''pol-'' is widely found throughout western Ireland, its accepted meaning being "hole" or "hollow".<ref name="PoUpg25"/> In County Cavan, which contains over half of all townlands in Ulster with the prefix ''pol-'', some should probably be better translated as "the poll of ...".<ref name="PoUpg25"/> Modern townlands with the prefix ''tat-'' are confined almost exclusively to the diocese of Clogher, which covers Counties Fermanagh and Monaghan, and the barony of Clogher in [[County Tyrone]]),<ref name="PoUpg25"/> and cannot be confused with any other Irish word.<ref name="PoUpg25"/>