A representation of the Bride Valley in Ireland during the eighteenth century

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Date
2006
Authors
O'Flanagan, Patrick
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Universidade do Minho
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Abstract
This research is a brief analysis of one of the earliest and most comprehensive estate surveys made in Ireland. An estate was a very large landholding unit sometimes exceeding 5,000 hectares created under the auspices of English colonisation mainly in the first half of the seventeenth century. It was conducted by a surveyor in the early years of the eighteenth century, hired by the estate owner and it consists of individual maps for different ‘townlands’. Each one of which has an accompanying paper description known as a ‘terrier’. An overall plan of the entire survey area was also produced. An attempt is made here to assess the nature of farming and landscape representation by essentially focusing on the characteristics of the areas landesque capital. By landesque capital, I mean the man-made farming and settlement infrastructures represented on the surveyors maps such as houses and outbuildings, embankments and roads. This evaluation confirms that different forms of land colonisation and enclosure were then in vogue: firstly, large scale systematic improvement involving planned enclosure and settlement and secondly spontaneous small-scale improvement mainly associated with more marginal and less productive land.
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Keywords
Ireland , Estate survey , Landscape representations.
Citation
O'Flanagan, P. (2006) 'A Representation of the Bride Valley in Ireland during the eighteenth century', Aurora: Geography Journal, 1, pp. 69-80.