Aughrim, County Cavan

Aughrim is a townland in the Parish of Tomregan, Barony of Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland. The townland name is an anglicisation of the Gaelic placename “Each Druim” which means ‘Horse Hill’. The oldest surviving mention of the name is in the Fiants of Queen Elizabeth I (4813) dated 19th January 1586 where it is spelled 'Augherym'. The 1609 Ulster Plantation map spells the name as ‘Aghrim’.

It is bounded on the north and east by the international border with Fermanagh and Northern Ireland, on the south by Gortawee & Mucklagh townlands and on the west by Snugborough townland. Its chief geographical features are swallow holes, limestone caves containing stalactites including Pollnagollum Cave and Slieve Rushen mountain, on whose south-eastern slope it lies, reaching an altitude of 1,005 feet above sea-level.

The townland is traversed by Aughrim Lane.

Aughrim covers an area of 247 statute acres. The owners of the townland in 1586 were Garrett McGovern, son of Edmund McGovern and grandson of Sean Glas McGovern and also Giolla Ruadh McGovern, son of the above Garrett McGovern, both receiving a pardon in the Fiants of Queen Elizabeth I (4813) dated 19th January 1586. At the beginning of the 17th century it was owned jointly by Bryan McPhilip O’Reyly and Edward Rutlidge but was confiscated by the Crown in the 1609 Ulster Plantation and it formed part of the half-territory of Aughrin which was granted to Sir Hugh Culme in 1610. Culme later relinquished his claim to the Crown and by Letters Patent dated 25th January 1627 Aughrim was granted to Martin Baxter, the first Church of Ireland rector of Tomregan parish and since then it passed down as part of the glebe lands belonging to the Rectory of Tomregan. A hill in the townland is named ‘Church Hill’ in honour of this ownership. The Hearth Money Rolls of 1664 list the occupiers of Aughrim as Owen McGillehooly, Cormac Magawran, Manus McCanany and Patrick White. Griffith's Valuation of 1857 lists the landlord of the townland as the Reverend Henry James Erskine & the tenants as Drum, Reilly, Prior, O’Donnell, Donohoe, McTeague and Heavy. The Rev. Erskine was rector of Tomregan at the time which shows the townland still belonged to Tomregan Church. Further information and a detailed map showing the location of each holding can be seen online. The 1841 Census of Ireland gives a population of 74 in Aughrim, of which 45 were males and 29 were females, with 10 houses. The 1851 Census of Ireland gives a population of 44, a decrease of 30 on the 1841 figure, due to the intervening Irish Famine of 1845-47, of which 26 were males and 18 were females, with 9 houses. The decrease was larger in the male population who had probably left the townland to look for work. In the 1911 census of Ireland, there are seven families listed in the townland.

The only historic site in the townland was a prehistoric wedge tomb but this was excavated in 1992 and moved to the grounds of the Slieve Russell hotel in Cranaghan townland due to quarrying operations, (Site number 7, page 2, Aughrim townland, in “Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan”, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995). Information can be found online at http://megalithomania.net/show/image/6285 and at <a href="http://www.megalithicireland.com/Augrim%20Wedge%20Tomb.html" Megalithic Ireland </a>. It was one of only two megalithic structures in Tomregan parish; the only one now remaining in situ is the court-cairn in Doon townland.

External links

• The IreAtlas Townland Data Base