CLACHÁN SETTLEMENT IN IAR-CHONNACHT
BREANDAN S. MAC AODHA
University College, Galway.
Professor E. Estyn Evans was the first to point out, in his now classic
papers1 on Irish rural settlement, that the dispersed form of settlement
(Einzelhöfe) which now dominates the Irish scene was, in certain areas
at least, a relatively late innovation. It was preceded by nucleated settlements consisting of groups of farmhouses and their associated outhouses
arranged according to no clear-cut plan. To such joint farmhouse clusters
Evans applied the name " clachán ", a loan word from the Irish language
current until recently in certain Ulster dialects of English.2 Almost
inseparable from the clachán was the Irish openfield system (termed
" rúndale ") under which each fanner held his land in a number of scattered plots. Evans' pioneer work on clachán settlements and their associated
rúndale system was developed by a number of later research workers,
notably McCourt,8 Johnson,4 Buchanan8 and Mac Aodha.6 Flatrès,7
Gailey8 and Uhlig9 have each made careful comparisons with similar
settlement units in other countries, while Proudfoot10 has shown that
both the nucleated and the dispersed settlement forms have an extremely
long, if possibly discontinuous, history in Ireland.
Unfortunately, most of the field research on clacháns so far carried
out has been concentrated in the northern counties of Donegal, Deny,
Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and Down. The settlement pattern
in those counties was greatly affected by the English and Scottish plantations of the 17th century, and also by the work of improving landlords
in the 19th century. As a result clacháns have managed to survive there
in only a few refuge areas, though there is a considerable volume of
documentary material to show that they had a much wider distribution
prior to the mid-nineteenth century.
Iar-Connacht, on the other hand, is unique in that clacháns have
survived as the dominant settlement form over a wide area until the present decade. An eleven-mile-long stretch of the Co. Galway coastlands,
bounded by the Barna and Yellow (Sruffaunboy) streams,11 was selected
for intensive study. The physical environment of this district is a particularly harsh one. The land rises very gently inland to a maximum height
of around 400 feet, so that elevation presents no problem, but its surface
is extremely uneven. The district has been very heavily glaciated by ice
20
1. Aille
A. ' Selerna '
B. Aille Thiar
C. Tievegarriff
D. Ballyfanagh
2. Cloghernalaura
3. Knock South
A. Curraghatee
B. Fiddaunnawinn
C. Baile na mBruach
4. KilroeWest
A. Cavenue
B. ' Kilroe New '
C. Kilroe West
D. Shanagroyne
5. _Letterfir
6. Kilroe East
A. Caher
B. ' Puireen Old '
C. ' Puireen Middle '
D. ' Puireen New '
7. Boliska Eighter
8. Shanawoneen
9. Bohoona West
A. ' Salahoona West '
B. Salahoona
C. CredufE
10. Bohoona East
A. Tuar Beág
B. Cnocan Glas
C. Bohoona
11. Spiddle West (Cushnahown)
12. Spiddle Middle (Ballywilliam)
13. Shannagurraun
NimtMLS :
L l T T H i tCLKCHUNS
: NAHES 1MNTICM.
I HO ClACHAN KNOWN
14. Spiddle East
A. Ballydonnellan
B. Ballintaggart
15. Sheeaunroe
16. Truskaunnagappul
17. Killoügh" ~ "
A. ' Killough '
B.. Ballynahoon agh
C. Ballylower
D. Ballylower
18. Knock
19.
A. Park West
B. Park Middle
C. Park East
20. Lippa
A. Lippa
B. ' Lippa Upper '
21. Derryloughan West
22. Derryloughan East"
23. Knockarasser
24. Allaphreaghän
25. Derryoughter
26. Seershin
'
27. Lettergunnet
28. Ballynahown
29. Shannafreaghoge
30. Stripe
31. Knockanavoddy (Ballyvoddy)
32. Cushmaigmore
A. Cushmaigmore
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
B. Buaile Shorcha
C. Knockaunakit East
Polleeny
A. Polleeny West
B. Polleeny East
C. ' Polleeny Old '
Derrycrih
Furboghgarve
Knocknagreana
Forramoyle West (F. Beg)
Forramoyle East (F. More)
îTew^Village
Lacklea
Seapoint
Ahaglugger
Trusky West (Trusky)
Freeport
"Trïïsky East
JJällärd_West
Cloghscoltia
Loughinch
Corboley
Odd Acres
ÂTliê
Ballard East
"Knöckaunnacarragh
Barna
Leñarevagh
Derryloriey
Map A. Index to the clacháns and townlands in part of Iar-Chonnacht.
Based on the Ordnance Survey by permission of the Government.
moving southwards from the Maumturk Mountains towards Galway
Bay. The hard pre-Cambrian granites have been exposed over wide areas,
and erratic boulders are very numerous. A shallow layer of peat covers
much of the land above 200 feet, and patches of it occur at lower levels.
The granite soils are so shallow, infertile and patchily distributed that
they have had to be supplemented over the centuries by the annual
addition of sand and seaweed. Winters are mild but summers tend to be
cool and cloudy. Rainfall probably averages 60 inches per annum, while
gales are frequent in winter and westerly winds are persistent throughout
the year.
This district of relatively high population density (probably over 250
per square mile of enclosed land) presents to the uncritical eye a picture
of closely-spaced linear settlement along the main coast road. This
finely woven ribbon settlement is of much more recent origin than the
more widely dispersed pattern found in most other parts of rural Ireland.
It has arisen through the partial break-down in recent years of the still
dominant nucleated settlements. Due to the uneveness of the surface,
and also to the sheltered nature of the sites favoured by their builders,
the clacháns elude the traveller's eye.
With the exception of a few settlements built either near patches of
reasonably fertile land in the upper valleys of streams or on secondary
islands of dry rocky land rising out of the wet moorland, the bulk of the
clacháns are located approximately midway between the shore and the
upper limit of the enclosed land (Map A and Map B). Their distribution
bears no relationship to the coast road ; instead they are connected by a
series of approximately parallel ' seaweed ' lanes to the shore, and interlinked by a veritable maze of cross-lanes. Only two happen to lie astride
the coast road, and only in the west, where that road curves slightly
inland, do clacháns occur on its seaward side. Furthermore their distribution is unrelated to the townland pattern, some townlands containing no
clacháns (e.g., Furboghgarve and Ballard East) but others as many as
four (e.g., Killough and Kilroe West), while in a few cases the clachán
sites actually lie astride the townland boundaries (as in Stripe/Ballynahown).
Three groupings can be distinguished : (a) half a dozen clacháns which
were abandoned around the time of the Great Famine or even earlier
(e.g., Knockaunnacarragh and Puireen Old) ; (b) eight which were abandoned during the past hundred years but principally during the past
twenty five years (e.g., Ballydonnellan, Park East and Park West) ;
(c) forty-eight which still function, even if only in a very attentuated
form (e.g., Ballintleva, Park Middle and Forramoyle More). Such a
classification implies almost nothing with regard to age ; many of the
22
B: I AR-CHONNACHT CLACHANS
COAST
ROAD
LIMIT OF ENCLOSED
UNENCLOSED
LAND
MOORLAND
G A LWAY
t
ABANDONED
*
» » A N D O N E O AFTER 11^0
IN FAMINE PERIOD
•
STILL
FUNCTIONINO
BAY
t:t>3,no
Map B. Distribution oí clacháns in part of Iar-Chonnacht.
Based on the Ordnance Survey by permission of the Government.
clacháns still functioning are far older in origin than some of those abandoned in the famine period. It is clear from reliable tradition that the
majority of the clacháns grew up around a single homestead (or, at most,
around a pair) so that the dichotomy between nucleated and dispersed
settlement here has been by no means a rigid one. Early marriages, a
high fertility rate, and the acceptance of the principle of equal sub-division
among the heirs all contributed to the rapid expansion of the settlements.
Even today, close degrees of relationship are to be found among the
inhabitants of a single clachán, and rarely can such a settlement boast
of more than a handful of different surnames.
Practically all the clacháns studied were built on bare boulder-strewn
rock-outcrops. Four reasons can be deduced for this : (a) the wish to avail
of large erratic boulders as corner-stones in the houses, (b) the difficulty
of transporting the heavy boulders used in building, (c) the relative dryness
of such sites and (d) the unwillingness to waste more easily reclaimable
land. In almost every case stream-side sites were chosen. Where running
water was not available (e.g., Caher and Bohoona) well pollution has long
been a problem. Slopes facing south or south-east were favoured except
in the case of the few clacháns built near the sea ; in these the houses
turn their backs to the strong south-westerly winds.
With a few exceptions (e.g., Killough which has a near-linear lay-out)
23
all the clacháns in this area are amorphous in plan, but it is possible to
distinguish an extremely compact type (e.g., Puireen New, Salahoona,
Ballintleva and Caher) from those with a more open format (e.g., Tievegarriff and Kilroe West). The degree of compactness is a function of the
clachán's growth combined with the nature of its site rather than an
indication of any fundamental difference in origin.
It is very difficult to comment on the size of the clacháns, partly because
it has varied so much in the past, partly because some of the abandoned
houses have been completely demolished while others have been retained
as out-offices, and partly because many of the existing houses are merely
replacements of older ones.. Even to estimate the current number of
occupied houses is difficult since many apparently abandoned houses
are retained by emigrants who return home periodically, while other old
houses are maintained in good repair so that their replacements can be
rented to summer visitors. It is unlikely, however, that many clacháns
here ever rivalled in size Ballywhoriskey in Donegal or Rathlacken in
Mayo, probably because the poverty of the land rendered such growth
impossible. The larger ones (e.g., Salahoona, Ballydonnellan, Knockaunnacarragh and Forramoyle More) probably contained 10-20 families
in their hey-day, but smaller ones (e.g., Lippa, Allaphreaghan and Ballyfanagh) averaging 3-10 families were much more numerous.
• Two traditional house-types occur in the area : gabled houses and houses
with hipped-roofs. Both types have long histories, many extant specimens
of each being at least 200 or possibly 300 years old, but the latter undoubtedly pre-date the former. None of the hipped have been built during the
last' half-century though a few old ones, many with wicker chimney-breasts
(as in Forramoyle More) are still occupied. In some cases (as in Sheeaunroe) gables have been added to the older houses, while elsewhere (as in
Lippa and Ballynahoonagh) interesting hybrids occur. Both main types
are built of massive boulders. Older specimens are characterised by extreme smallness, lowness, coarseness of construction and dry walling.
Newer specimens have mortared walling, larger dimensions, more rooms,
and in the case of gabled houses, loft bedrooms. Sedge or oat-straw thatch,
pegged with either hazel or sally rods, is the usual roofing on both types.
As their avoidance of coastal sites would indicate, most of these clacháns were predominantly farming settlements. Nevertheless the sea
and the shore provided welcome additions to the diet of their inhabitants,
and at least one settlement (Trusky) was occupied by full-time fishermen.
Until a century or so ago all the land (apart from that in the extreme
east, near Galway city) was held in rúndale and even yet many of the
inhabitants hold land in scattered plots (Map C).
Elsewhere in Ireland clacháns were forcibly broken up in the nine24
c
N
M
1
g!
%
î
•i
/y
ifr
/
/»
»H A.
i: IO56O
If:
M KM t .
n
m> •
C.
MU»
•««.«.
Map C. Three scattered land-holdings in Seershin clachán.
Based on the Ordnance Survey by permission of the Government.
teenth century or even earlier by improving landlords keen to rationalise
the letting of their estates. Disease and starvation during the various
famines hastened their decay in other areas, while the toll of emigration
in many cases completed the process of dissolution. Hunger, disease and
emigration affected this area to a greater extent than most others, yet
the majority of the clacháns here survived. Probably the explanation
for this lies in the fact that neither improving landlords, nor the officials
of the Irish Land Commission who continued their policy, could bring
about much consolidation of holdings in Iar-Chonnacht, so minute are
the farms and so fragmentary and scattered the " gardens ". A contributory factor to their persistence here was the unusual strength of theninhabitants' respect for tradition.
25
In recent years that respect is ceasing to be the binding influence it
once was. As a natural consequence the clacháns are being voluntarily
abandoned on a piecemeal basis. Emigrants' remittances, combined with
the availability of government grants and loans, have enabled many
of the clachán inhabitants to build new houses, while their own experience of housing conditions in other areas has altered their concept
of desirable accommodation. Convenience to bus routes, and the greater
facility in obtaining electricity and, in places, water supplies have rendered
sites near the coast-road more attractive (Map D). Furthermore, such
sites are more valuable from the point of view of attracting summer
visitors and in particular students attending the summer courses in the
Irish language colleges, partly because of their convenience to transport
and partly because of their proximity to the beaches. The existence of a
rúndale system under which " gardens " convenient to the seaweed beds
were equitably distributed among all the householders has meant that
most families already owned such sites. On the other hand, new sites were
often difficult to obtain in the old crowded clacháns, and, even where they
were obtainable, blasting would have been a dangerous operation. The
use of the existing house-sites would have rendered the families homeless
while demolition and rebuilding were in progress, whereas the choice of
new sites meant that the families could occupy the old houses until the
new dwellings were completed. The decline of the spirit of " kinship "
and co-operation in the clacháns has meant that the communal assent
D:
c O A S T- R o A D
SETT LE M EN T
1831
KÏLLOUGH
}
^=*=^H*
= s s = =
Œ
1
*¥°
^-
•••
-g
1
-==¿»*
«^
ill
-
^^^ ^
*
•
-«*
.« -
^=-
N
î
• i : 10.560.
Map D. Coast-road settlement at different periods.
26
necessary for dealing with such problems as the disposal of sewage would
have been difficult to obtain. Clinching the matter was the fact that
many of the approaches to the house-clusters were so narrow, winding
and potholed that the lorries carrying the building materials could not
have negotiated them.
As each family moves out, social pressures exert themselves ever more
forcibly in the remaining households. This is particularly true in the caseof the smaller, more remote clacháns in which loneliness has long been
a problem. The exodus is welcomed by most of the younger generation,
but bitterly regretted by the old people, some of whom return by day to
the more familiar scenes of their childhood. Despite the big changes in
the settlement pattern much of the land remains in rúndale. The landtenure system has in many cases become even more inconvenient than
formerly, and it is almost inevitable that many of the upper " gardens "
will revert soon to rough grazing, or at any rate cease to be tilled.
It is clear that the clachán type of settlement succeeded in retaining
its position as a marginal survival here until very recently, and it is
only now in process of decay. Factors favouring its survival in IarChonnacht were the remoteness of the area, the protective barrier of
Lough Corrib, the extreme difficulty of imposing consolidation, the poverty of the land, the cultural homogeneity of the inhabitants, the strength,
of tradition among them, and their antipathy towards the outside world.
I t is unlikely that there was much settlement in this harsh environment
prior to the 17th-century Plantations. While most of the area was confiscated then,12 no English could be enticed to settle there, and the landlords themselves were either of Catholic Anglo-Irish stock (e.g., the Blakefamily of Furbo) or else, being absentees (e.g., the Westmeath family),
were content to manage their estates here from outside. Probably many
Irish people, evicted from more fertile holdings elsewhere in Ireland,
came seeking shelter in this dreary wasteland. Whether they chose tolive in clustered settlements for protection in those troubled times, or
whether they merely maintained an already long-standing tradition
arising from their strong spirit of kinship and neighbourliness, is a problem on which the geographer can as yet throw no light. Certain it is, at
any rate, that many of the clacháns of Iar-Chonnacht have a continuous
history of at least 300 years. That same strong force of tradition will
undoubtedly ensure the survival of at least some of them for some decades
to come, despite all the forces arrayed against them.
REFERENCES
1
Evans, E. Estyn.
" Some survivals of the Irish Openfield System," Geography, 24 (1939), pp. 24-36 ;
" Donegal Survivals ", Antiquity, 13 (1939), pp. 207-222.
27
2
Campbell, J.
" Tis Pretty Tae Be in Baile-Liosan," The Poems of
Joseph Campbell (edited by Clarke, A., 1963), pp. 102-103.
3 McCourt, D.
The Rundale System in Ireland : a Study of its Geographical
Distribution and Social Relations (Ph.D. Thesis, Queen's
University, Belfast, 1950).
4 Johnson, J. H.
" Studies of Irish Rural Settlement ", The Geographical
Review, 48, iv, pp. 554-566 ;
" The Development of the Rural Setlement Pattern
of Ireland ", Geografiska Annaler, 43 (1961), i-ii, pp.
165-173.
5 Buchanan, R. H.
The Barony of Lecale, Co. Down : a Study of Regional
Personality (Ph.D. Thesis, Queen's University, Belfast,
1958).
6 Mac Aodha, B.S.
Ros Goill and Western Fanad (B. A. Dissertation, Queen's
University, Belfast, 1955);
" Na Spéiríní ", Studia Hibernica, 1 (1961), pp. 151-160 ;
" Eastát LIOS na Sceiche 1825 ", Studia Hibernica, 3
(1963), pp. 128-142 ;
" Gréasán Aitriú na Tuaithe in Éirinn ", Galvia (1963),
pp. 45-52.
7 Flatrès, P.
Gèographie rurale de quatre contrées celtiques (Rennes,
1957).
8 Gailey, R. A.
" The Evolution of Highland Rural Settlement : with
particular reference to Argyllshire ", Scottish Studies,
6, ii, pp. 155-177.
9 Uhlig, H.
" Some Remarks on Comparative Research in Settlement
Structures", Scottish Studies, 6, ii, pp. 181-183.
10 Proudfoot, V.B.
Settlement and Economy in Co. Down from the late Bronze
Age to the Anglo-Norman Invasion (Ph.D. Thesis, Queen's
University, Belfast 1957) ;
" Rural Settlement in Ireland and Western Britain,"
Advancement of Science, 60 (1959), pp. 336-338.
11 O.S. six inches to 1 mile sheets, Co. Galway, nos. XCII and XCIII.
12
Mac Giolla Choille, B. Books of Survey and Distribution (Dublin, 1962), 3 (Co.
Galway), p. 68.
28