Gaelic settlement after Cromwell: the study of a local transplantation site at Lislarheen in the Caher valley

Eve Campbell

The Cromwellian land settlement of the 1650s had a major impact on the shape of Irish landholding and as a result on the shape of the Irish landscape. The transplantation comprised a major component of the settlement, stipulating that the bulk of Irish Catholic landowners forfeit their lands and transplant to Connacht and Clare. This study is concerned with the local transplantation settlement of a branch of the O Davoren family of Cahermacnaghten in the Burren. Under the transplantation scheme Hugh O Davoren was set out ’Lislarheen qr being the parish of Drumkreehy’ approximately three kilometers to the north west of Cahermacnaghten and situated in the eastern slopes of the Caher Valley in the shadow of Sliabh Elva. In 1676 his son Constance was confirmed the land as part of the restoration land settlement under Charles II. 

Hugh and his family built a small T-plan house on their new lands, called ’Lislarheen House’ on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. The house had an adjoining yard enclosed by a high stone wall. Other nearby features within the townland are also likely to form components of the landscape associated with Lislarheen House. A large rectangular field with walls of almost 2m in height lies to the south west of the house for example. Having identified the transplantation settlement of Hugh O Davoren and the major components within that landscape the next phase of research will comprise a detailed walkover survey of the lands with the aim of gaining a more complete view of what the O Davoren holding at Lislarheen looked like at the end of the seventeenth century. 

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Funding

INSTAR 2008

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