The Barony of Burren is a geographical division of

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

, Ireland, that in turn is divided into

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishe ...

. It covers a large part of

the Burren The Burren ( ; ) is a karst/glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.

Legal context

Baronies were created after the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

as divisions of

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

and were used the administration of justice and the raising of revenue. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they have been administratively obsolete since 1898. However, they continue to be used in land registration and in specification, such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

túath which had submitted to the Crown.

Landscape

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland 1845 describes the barony as follows:

History

The district was once called Cean-gan, which means "the external promontory".

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

wrote this name as Gan-ganii. Later it was called Hy-Loch-Lean, which means "the district on the waters of the sea". In 1841 the population of the barony was 12,786 in 2,056 houses, mostly engaged in agriculture.

Parishes and settlements

The barony contains the civil parishes of

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

Carran Carran (), also Carron, is a small village in County Clare, Ireland. It is in the Burren region, within a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of the same name. It is notable mainly for being the birthplace of Michael Cusack, the inspi ...

, Drumcreehy, Glaninagh, Kilcorney, Kilonahan, Kilheny,

Kilmoon Kilmoon () is a civil parish of County Clare, Ireland, north of Ennistymon. The parish contains the town of Lisdoonvarna. History The parish was listed as "Kilmugoun" in the Papal taxation of 1302. There is a Romanesque standing stone in the ...

, Noughoval,

Oughtmama Oughtmama () is a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Clare, Ireland. It lies in the Burren, a region in the northwest of the county. It contains many antiquities, including three early-medieval Christian churches, ruined castle ...

, and Rathborney. It contains the settlements of

, Burren, Behagh, Bealaclugga, Currenroe,

Ballyvaughan Ballyvaughan or Ballyvaghan () is a small harbour village in County Clare, Ireland. It is located on the N67 road on the south shores of Galway Bay, in the northwest corner of The Burren. This position on the coast road and the close proximity ...

, Ballyconree, Ballinacraggy, Loughrusk, Gleninagh, Murroghkelly, Murroghtwohy, Fermoyle,

New Quay New Quay () is a seaside town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales; it had a resident population of 1,045 at the 2021 census. Located south-west of Aberystwyth, on Cardigan Bay with a harbour and large sandy beaches, the town ...

, Noughaval, Aughnish and Finavara.

References

Citations Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burren, Barony of Baronies of County Clare