Castlerahan () is a barony in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; gle, Contae an Chabháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the historic Gaelic territory of East Breffny (''Bréifn ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. Baronies were mainly

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented gra ...

rather than administrative units. They acquired modest local taxation and spending functions in the 19th century before being superseded by the

Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, ...

Etymology

Castlerahan barony takes its name from Castlerahan townland, from Castlera an, an ancient

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...

located at . The name is derived from Irish ''Caisleán Raithín'', "stone fort of the little

ringfort Ringforts, ring forts or ring fortresses are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Bronze Age up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wale ...

," although other writers link it with ''raithean'', "

bracken Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family (biology), family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produ ...

", or with a

Norse Gael Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

leader named Raithin.

Geography

Castlerahan is located in the southeast of

, the area surrounding

Lough Ramor Lough Ramor () is a large natural lake of 741 hectares situated near Virginia, County Cavan. From early records ''Vita Tripartita'' identified as being in the territory of Cenal Muinreamhair. The literal meaning of the term Muinreamhair is 'fat ...

History

The Luigni tribe lived in the area since the 8th century. It contains the parish of Munterconnaught, named for Cu Connaght Ua Raghallaigh (O'Reilly). The barony of Castlerahan was created by 1609 in the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster ( gle, Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: ''Plantin o Ulstèr'') was the organised colonisation ('' plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the se ...

, and was archaically spelled ''Castlerachan''. The barony gives its name to Castlerahan GAA, based in Ballyjamesduff.

List of settlements

Below is a list of settlements in Castlerahan: * Ballyjamesduff * Crosserlough * Kilnaleck * Mullagh *

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

References

{{County Cavan Baronies of County Cavan