Difference between revisions 120893541 and 120893542 on dewiki

[[Image:Teeshanrd.jpg|thumb|250px|A road-sign in [[County Antrim]], noting that this part of the road lies within Teeshan townland]]
[[File:Townland boundary marker - geograph.org.uk - 108106.jpg|thumb|A (rare) townland boundary marker]]
(contracted; show full)versity Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7''</ref><ref name="Maxwell2009pg16">Maxwell, Ian, ''How to trace your Irish ancestors'', page 16. howtobooks, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84528-375-9</ref> There are currently 61,402 named townlands in Ireland, covering the whole island.<ref>[http://www.logainm.ie/ Placenames Database of Ireland / Bunachar Logainmneacha na hÉireann]</ref> The term was at one time also used in [[Scotland]]. 

==Etymology==

The [[English language|English]] term ''townland'' is derived from the [[Old In Gaelic times, the Irish name for (what we now know as) townlands would have changed as one travelled through the island. The [[English language|Old English]] word ''tun'', meaning a homestead or settlement. The English language term was used by administrators to translate various [[Gaels|Gaelic]] land measures.

Theterm ''townland'' was later adopted as a standard name to replace the various local forms.

One of the commonest names used in Irish was ''[[wikt:baile|baile]]'' (plural ''bailte''); a general term for "homestead" or "settlement". The modern official term for ''townland'' in [[Irish language|Irish]] is ''baile fearainn'' (plural ''bailte fearainn''); ''baile'' is the word for "town" and. The term ''fearann'' means "land, territory, quarter" — from a Proto-Indo-European root *''wer-'' which is also related to the English word ''ware'', a valuable commodity. Fearann was later anglicised as ''farran'' (e.g. in names like [[Farranfore]]).

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;''Baile'' is usually anglicised as ''bally'' (for example in [[Ballymena]]) and ''Fearann'' as ''farran'' (for example in [[Farranfore]]). Although not its original meaning, ''baile'' was later adopted as the Irish term for "town".

The [[Scottish Gaelic]] form is ''baile'' (plural ''bailtean''), while the [[Manx language|Manx]] for ''townland''m is ''balley eirinagh'' (plural ''baljyn eirinagh'').

==Townlands in Ireland==
===Size===
In Ireland, a townland is the smallest officially-defined geographical division of land, smaller than a [[parish]], [[barony (Ireland)|barony]] and [[county]]. Townlands vary in size from the smallest, of less than an acre (Old Church Yard, parish of Termonmaguirk, [[County Tyrone]]), up to 7,012 acres or 28.3&nbsp;km² (Sheskin, parish of Kilcommon, [[County Mayo]]).<ref name="Connolly2002p577"/> Typically 200 to 400 acres is a reasonab(contracted; show full)

The first official evidence of their existence can be found in church records from before the 12th century.<ref name="Senses">{{cite book |title=Senses of Place: Senses of Time |last=Reid |first=Bryonie |year=2005 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |pages=47–60 |chapter=Identity, locality and the townland in Northern Ireland |quote=The first official evidence of their existence occurs in church records from before the twelfth century.}}</ref>
 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". A townland or ''baile'' was originally the holding of an extended family.<ref name="Graham149"/>

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 c(contracted; show full)[[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| ]]

[[pt:Townland]]