Information about Cloonruff

Cloonruff in Galway; Cluain-ruibhe [-ruwa orrivva], meadow of sulphur. See vol. ii. p. 372 [reproduced below].

Sulphur. Native sulphur is found in the limestone of Oughterard in Galway, so that it can be picked out of the stones in the bed of the pretty little river that flows through the village, when the water is very low. O'Flaherty (Iar. C. p. 53) records that in a great drought in 1666 and 1667, "there was brimstone found on the dry stones [in the bed of the river] about the bridge of Fuogh". From these sulphury deposits he states "it was commonly called Owan Roimhe, Brimstone River; and this name is now modernised to Owenriff. This word ruibh [riv], sulphur, is found in a few other names, but it does not occur often. Revlin in the parish of Killymard, near the town of Donegal, probably received its name for the same reason as the last: - Ruibh-linn, sulphur pool or stream. Moneenreave in the parish of Inishmagrath in Leitrim, the little bog of the sulphur.

Some other placenames in or near this townland are...

• Cloonruff Holy Well (well)

Ireland was first mapped in the 1840s. These original maps are available online.
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Cloonruff

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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Cloonruff

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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You can use this link to find this townland on Google Maps.

Google Maps
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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

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

• Aghrane
• Clooncannon
• Knockaunarainy
• Lisheinteige

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 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.)

Cloonruff is in the civil parish of Athleague.

This civil parish corresponds with the following Roman Catholic parish or parishes.

• Athleague

This civil parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish.

• Athleague

In general, the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same, but, this is not always the case.