Townlands

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small districts of land, often named and recorded for local administration, especially in Ireland and parts of Britain, where each area carries its own traditional name
2. Local units of territory identified in old land surveys and parish records, typically marking a small rural area with a historic name
3. Subdivisions of a parish or estate known by traditional names, used in land registers and historical maps of Ireland and other regions

Etymology: Townlands are the smallest officially named units of land in Ireland, and the name has nothing to do with a settlement of houses. The word is a compound of "town" and "land", but in this sense "town" meant a farm or homestead, the old English sense of a cluster of holdings, rather than a modern urban place. A townland was the land belonging to one such settlement, and many of these divisions go back centuries, long before Ireland's maps and records were standardised. "Townland" is the plural form, so it simply refers to more than one such unit. Each one is a named piece of ground, often with its own boundaries, and the name is used in land records, postal addresses and local identity across the country.

Synonyms: townships