Information about Esker

Information from O'Donovan's Field Name Books

Standard Name:
Esker
Irish Form of Name:
Eiscir
Translation:
a ridge of sand hills
Civil Parish:
Other Forms of the Name with authority source (if provided) in italics:
Esker
Eiscir
Esker
Esker By. Sketch Map
Esker Co. Book
Esker Co. Map
Esker H. C. Sur. & Val. Report
Esker Inq. Temp. Jac. I
Esker Mr. Hardy, Agent to – West, Esq.
Comment:
prond. iscir
Description:
About 1/3 of this townland is bog, the remainder arable containing a number of farm houses an old Corn Mill, a Flour Mill, Gromwells Castle, Steam Company’s Stone, a tower called Banaghers, a smithy, two brick kilns and pit, a grave yard and a holy well called Tubber Muckenagh.
Situation:
Bounded on the North by Killalthonagh, Kilmacshane, Macklin and Keish, in this parish, West by the Shannon and parish of Gillen, or Gallen and Rynagh, South by the Shannon and the parish of Lusmagh, all in the King’s County, a By. of Garry Castle, West by Kilnaborris.

Information From Joyce's Place Names

Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Esker ; a sand hill: see vol. i. p. 402 [reproduced below].
Eiscir [esker] means a ridge of high land, but it is generally applied to a sandy ridge, or a line of low sand-hills. It enters pretty extensively into local names, but it is more frequently met with across the middle of Ireland than in either the north or south. It usually takes the form of Esker, which by itself is the name of more than thirty townlands, and combines to form the names of many others; the word is somewhat altered in Garrisker, the name of a place in Kildare, signifying short sand-ridge. The most celebrated esker in Ireland is Esker-Riada, a line of gravel-hills extending with little interruption across Ireland, from Dublin to Clarin-Bridge in Galway, which was fixed upon as the boundary between the north and south halves of Ireland, when the country was divided, in the second century, between Owen More and Conn of the Hundred Battles (see p. 134). As a termination, this word assumes other forms, all derived from the genitive eiscreach [eskera]. Clashaniskera in Tipperary is called in Irish Clais-an-eiscreach, the trench or pit of the sand-hill. Ahascragh in Galway signifies the ford of the esker; but its full name as given by the Four Masters is Ath-eascrach Cluain [Ahascra Cuan], the ford of St. Cuan's sand-hill; and they still retain the memory of St. Cuan, the patron who is commemorated in O'Clery's Calendar at the 15th of October; Tiranascragh, the name of a townland and parish in Galway, the land of the esker. Eskeragh and Eskragh are the names of several townlands in the Ulster and Connaught counties, the Irish Eiscreach signifying a place full of eskers or sand-hills.

Information From Griffith's Valution

Area in Acres, Roods and Perches:
A.R.P.
1632 1 3
Land value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
598 15 1
Building value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
24 3 0
Total value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
610 14 1
Heads of housholds living in the townland at this time:

Townland Information

What is a townland?:
A townland is one of the smallest land divisions in Ireland. They range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. Many are Gaelic in origin, but some came into existence after the Norman invasion of 1169
Townland:
Esker is a townland.

Information From Maps

Original OS map of this area.
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Ireland was first mapped in the 1840s. These original maps are available online.
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Esker
Original OS maps at the Ordnance Survey of Ireland website.
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This link is not a link to the townland that you are currently researching; however, if you follow this link, you will see a search box near the top of the page which you can use to search for your townland.
Having followed this link, you will see several expandable links - each link has a plus sign on its left - on the top left of the page. Expand 'Base Information and Mapping'. Now it is possible to select the maps that you wish to view by clicking on the checkbox that is on the left of each map; this list includes the original Ordnance Survey maps.
You can select more than one map and you can use a slider to make one map more transparent than another. This allows you to view what features were present or absent at different points in time.
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Esker
Information from the Down Survey Website.
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The Down Survey website will tell you who owned this townland in 1641 (pre Cromwell) and in 1671 (post Cromwell).
Down Survey Website
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Information from Google Maps.
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You can use this link to find this townland on Google Maps.
Google Maps
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Information from the National Monuments Service.
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You can use this link to view a map of archaelogical features.
This link brings you to a website wherein you will have to search for your townland.
Archaeological map from the National Monuments Service

Neighbouring Townlands

List of townlands that share a border with this townland:
This is a list of townlands that share a border with this townland.

Population and Census Information

People who lived here:
You can retrieve a list of people who lived in this townland from 1827 to 1911. This list is compiled from the following resources.
  • The Tithe Applotment Books
  • Griffith's Valuation
  • 1901 Census
  • 1911 Census
List of nineteenth century and early twentieth century inhabitants of this townland.
Church records of births, deaths and marriages:
Church records of births, deaths and marriages are available online at http://www.rootsireland.ie. To search these records you will need to know the 'church parish' rather than the 'civil parish'. (The civil parish is the pre-reformation parish and was frequently used as a unit of administration in the past.)
Esker is in the civil parish of Clonfert.
Roman Catholic parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Roman Catholic parish or parishes.
  • Clonfert, Meelick & Eyrecourt
Church of Ireland parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish.
  • Clonfert
In general, the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same, but, this is not always the case.

Other Sources

Information from the Logainm database.
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