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A '''townland''' is a small geographical unit eating your own feces of land used in [[Ireland]] and [[Scotland]], and believed to be of [[Gael|Gaelic]] origin. 

==Etymology==
The [[English language|English]] term ''townland'' is derived from the [[Old English language|Old English]] word 'tun', in turn originating  the cats eat popfrom the [[Old Norse]] word ''tún'', which describes a homestead, or settlement. The English language term was used by administrators to translate various [[Gaels|Gaelic]] land measures.

The official term for 'townland' in [[Irish language|Irish]] is ''baile fearainn'' (plural ''bailte fearainn''); ''baile'' is the word for 'town' and ''fearann'' is 'land, territory, quarter', from a Proto-Indo-European root *''wer-'' which is also related to the English word ''ware'', a valuable commodity. (In [[Scottish Gaelic]], the plural of the word ''baile'' is ''bailtean''.) In the [[Isle of Man]], the prefix "Balley-" is fairly common in farm names; the [[Manx language|Manx]] for 'townland' is ''balley eirinagh'', pl. ''baljyn eirinagh''.

==Townlands in Ireland==
In [[Ireland]], a townland is the lowest-level officially-defined geographical unit of land, smaller than a [[parish]], [[barony (Ireland)|barony]] or [[county]]. Townlands vary in size from as small as half an [[acre]] (2,000 m²) (Old Church Yard, near [[Carrickmore]], [[Tyrone|County Tyrone]]) up to more than seven thousand acres (28 km²) (Sheskin, in north-west [[County Mayo]]). 

===Origin of townland system===
The earliest reference to townlands as a unit are in [[11th century]] pre-[[Norman Ireland|Norman]] legal documents referring to grants of ''bailte'' to monasteries. The term ''baile'' has a variety of related meanings in Irish, such as "home" (the basic meaning), "village" (''sráid-bhaile'', literally "street-town", or "town" (''baile mór'', literally "big town"). In the context of placenames, the most accurate translation might be "the land belonging to a particular home or farmstead". The modern Irish for townland is ''baile fearainn'', literally "a home of land".

The term '''townland''' is a standardised form, often replacing earlier local terms such as '''tate''' (in [[Fermanagh]] and [[County Monaghan|Monaghan]]), '''cartron''' (in [[Connacht]]) or '''ploughland'''. These terms represent a variety of native land divisions, varying in name from one part of the country to another, and forming a hierarchy of sizes.

The nineteenth-century surveyor [[Thomas Larcom]], who was the first Director of the [[Ordnance Survey of Ireland|Irish Ordnance Survey]], summarised the hierarchy as follows:

<blockquote>''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 (Ireland)|Barony]].''</blockquote>

(A complicating factor was that in Gaelic times, land was measured in terms of its economic potential rather than in fixed units of measurement: by the number of cattle that an area of pasture land could support, or by the time taken to plough an area of arable land. Therefore the size of an "acre" in this system could vary enormously depending on the quality of the land.)

===Under English rule===
Townlands were first named and their boundaries defined under the English legal system during the process of [[Plantations of Ireland|plantation]]. The unit from the hierarchy of land divisions that was chosen to represent a "townland", however, might vary from county to county; in Fermanagh and Monaghan, the tate was chosen, resulting in relatively small townlands, while in other areas, larger units such as ploughlands were chosen, resulting in larger townland units.

As explained previously, townland size was often determined by the fertility of the land, thus townlands in high quality land tended to be smaller, while townlands in mountainous or bog areas tended to be much larger in size. In many areas of Norman settlement, townland boundaries tend to follow [[open field system|field]] or individual property boundaries and may reflect the holdings of monasteries or churches or the boundaries of [[common land|commonage]]. In these areas, townlands often have apparently irregular boundaries and are of small size. In contrast, townlands in areas of traditional Gaelic settlement tend to be larger in area and usually have apparently regular boundaries determined by streams, rivers or roads.

===Irish Ordnance Survey and standardisation===
During the middle decades of the 19th century, an extensive series of maps of Ireland were created by the Irish division of the Ordnance Survey for taxation purposes, which documented and standardised the boundaries of the more than 60,000 townlands in Ireland. This process often involved dividing or amalgamating existing townlands, and defining townland boundaries in areas such as mountain or bog land that had previously been outside the townland system.

===Current use===
Townlands form the building blocks for higher-level administrative units such as [[parishes]] and [[District Electoral Division | District Electoral Divisions]] (in the [[Republic of Ireland]]) or [[ward (politics)|wards]] (in [[Northern Ireland]]). The townland name continues to be one of the more important divisions in the Irish postal system; although this role has now been replaced in urban areas and in most areas of Northern Ireland by road names. The [[Northern Ireland Assembly]] passed a motion in 2001 requesting all Government departments in Northern Ireland to make use of townland addresses in their correspondence and publications.

A useful source of information on townlands (with an emphasis on the northern parts of Ireland) is the Federation for Ulster Local Studies.  Its publications include ''Every Stony Acre Has a Name: Celebration of the Townland in Ulster'' by Tony Canavan, and  ''Townlands in Ulster: Local History Studies'', edited by W.H. Crawford & R.H. Foy.

==Townlands in Scotland==
In Scotland, townland boundaries were generally disregarded and lost during 19th century agricultural improvements. Townlands were called also '''fermlands''' and many names remain identifiable in farmstead names which include the word ''[[Mains (Scotland)|Mains]]'', and "Bal-" (Baile) in placenames, such as [[Balerno]] or [[Balmoral]].

Townlands in Scotland were often in contradistinction to ''kirktouns'' (''Clachan''), which were settlements with a church, sometimes of ecclesiastical origin.⏎

See also [[Township (Scotland)]] for the crofting context.

==Treens and [[Quarterlands]] in the Isle of Man==

There may be similarities between the notion of townlands in Ireland and the traditional land divisions of '''treens''' (c.f. the Irish word ''trian'', a third part) in the Isle of Man. Treens are subdivided into smaller units called '''quarterlands'''[http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/parishes/treen.htm].

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[[Category:country subdivisions]]
[[Category:Geography of Scotland]]
[[Category:Townlands of Ireland| ]]
[[Category:Townlands of the Republic of Ireland| ]]
[[Category:Geography of the Isle of Man]]
[[Category:Townlands in Northern Ireland| ]]