Altnasheen meaning either Alt na Sián, ''The Gorge of the Fairy Mounds'' or Alt na Sithin meaning the ''Height of the Fairies'', is a

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Templeport Templeport () is a civil parish in the barony of Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland. The chief towns in the parish are Bawnboy and Ballymagauran. The large Roman Catholic parish of Templeport containing 42,172 statute acres was split up in the 18t ...

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; gle, Contae an Chabháin) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is base ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It lies in the Roman Catholic parish of

Glangevlin Glangevlin () is a village in the northwest of County Cavan, Ireland. It is in the townlands of Gub (Glangevlin) and Tullytiernan, at the junction of the R200 and R207 regional roads. It is surrounded by the Cuilcagh Mountains and borders the c ...

and barony of Tullyhaw.

Geography

Altnasheen is bounded on the north by Coppanaghmore and

Moneenabrone Moneenabrone, an Anglicisation of the Gaelic, ‘Moínín na Brón’, meaning ''The Little Bog of the Quern-stone'', is a townland in the civil parish of Templeport, County Cavan, Ireland. It lies in the Roman Catholic parish of Glangevlin and ...

townlands, on the west by Sranagarvanagh townland and on the south by Mullaghlea Glen townland. Its chief geographical features are Slievenakilla Mountain (on which eastern side it lies), mountain streams, waterfalls, forestry plantations, rocky outcrops and spring wells. Altnasheen is traversed by minor public roads and rural lanes. The townland covers 403 statute acres. A sub-division is called Carrignahasta (Carraig na Chasta meaning ''The Crag of the Turning'').

History

In earlier times the townland was probably uninhabited as it consists mainly of bog and poor clay soils. It was not seized by the English during the Plantation of Ulster in 1610 or in the Cromwellian Settlement of the 1660s so some dispossessed Irish families moved there and began to clear and farm the land. A deed by Thomas Enery dated 29 Jan 1735 includes the lands of ''Altneshein''. The 1790 Cavan Carvaghs list spells the name as ''Altneshihen''. The Tithe Applotment Books for 1826 list five tithepayers in the townland. The Ordnance Survey Name Books for 1836 give the following description of the townland- ''The soil is of a blue gravelly mixture...There is plenty of limestone. It is raised and burned for building but there is none sold. There is nothing remarkable of any kind.'' The Altnasheen Valuation Office Field books are available for July 1839.

Griffith's Valuation Griffith's Valuation was a boundary and land valuation survey of Ireland completed in 1868. Griffith's background Richard John Griffith started to value land in Scotland, where he spent two years in 1806-1807 valuing terrain through the examinati ...

of 1857 lists twenty-eight landholders in the townland. In the 19th century the landlords of Altnasheen were the Annesley and Hassard Estates. In 1875 the Hassard Estate was sold to William Carson of Dowra. An account of growing up in Altnasheen in the 1890s by Mrs. Kathleen Sheehan (nee McGovern) is given in the Ulster Folklife Journal, Volume 31, Page 53. In 1921, the first year of Ardscoil Bhréifne, the Irish College in Glangevlin, the students and teachers spent a night at a céilí in the cottage of Patrick and Margaret McGovern of Altnasheen.

Census

In the 1901 census of Ireland, there are eleven families listed in the townland. In the 1911 census of Ireland, there are ten families listed in the townland.

Antiquities

# A lime-kiln # Stepping stones over the river

References

External links

The IreAtlas Townland Data Base
{{County Cavan Townlands of County Cavan Lime kilns in Ireland