Information about Knockavanny

Information from O'Donovan's Field Name Books

Standard Name:
Knockavanny
Irish Form of Name:
Cnoc a Bhaine
Translation:
hill of the milk
Civil Parish:
Other Forms of the Name with authority source (if provided) in italics:
Cnoc a Bhaine
Knockavanny
Knockavanny By. S. Sketch Map
Description:
The property of St George French, Esq., Turone[Unable to read.], Co. Galway. It contains statute measure, all arable land. There is an ancient fort in this townland called Knockavanny in which there is a Trig. Station.
Situation:
In the W. central part of the parish Barony of Dunmore, bounded on the N. by Newtown-Darcy West, on the S. by Drumaskin, on the E. by the parish of Dunmore and on the W. by the parish of Dunmore.

Information From Joyce's Place Names

Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Knockavanny in Galway, and Knockavannia in Waterford ; Cnoc-a-bhainne, hill of the milk : indicating good pasture. See Bainne, vol. ii. p. 206 [reproduced below].
New milk is denoted by leamhnacht [lewnaght]; but the old form, as we find it in Cormac's Glossary, is lemlacht, the l being changed to n (see First Vol. Part I., c. iii.) in modern Irish. In its simple form it gives name to two townlands called Lennaght, one in Monaghan and the other in Kilkenny; while the diminutive Loonaghtan is the name of a place near Ahascragh in Galway, signifying new milk land (see p. 19). There is a townland giving name to a parish near Clonmel, called Inishlounaght, the river-holm of new milk, where O'Faelan, prince of the northern Decies, had his stronghold; and where O'Brien, king of Limerick, and O'Faelan founded an abbey in 1187. The Irish form of the name as given by Keating, is Inis-leamhnachta, the river-holm of the new milk; and the place obviously got this name from the beautiful inch along the Suir, between Clonmel and Marlfield. The word occurs in many other names such as Drumlaunaght in Cavan (Drum, a long hill), Fahanlunaghta near Ennistimon in Clare, and Gortlaunaght in Cavan, both signifying the field (faitche and gort) of the new milk. Near the western shore of Lough Derg, in the parish of Clonrush in Galway, there is a small lake called Lough Alewnaghta, new milk lake, which may have been so called from the softness of its water. Keating accounts for a name of this kind by a legend about one of those medicinal baths spoken of at page 76. During the short time that the Picts resided in Ireland, before their migration to Scotland, many centuries before the Christian era, Criffan, the king of Leinster, and his subjects were sorely annoyed by a hostile people in his neighbourhood, who used poisoned weapons, so that whoever received a wound from them, no matter how trifling, was sure to die of it. The king at last consulted a learned Pictish druid named Trosdan, who told him to have a bath prepared on the occasion of the next battle, with the milk of 150 white hornless cows, in which each wounded man was to be bathed. Criffan, as soon as he had procured the cows, at once sent a challenge to his adversaries; and on the eve of the battle he had the bath prepared just as the druid directed. As fast as the king's men were wounded they were plunged into the bath, from which they came out as well as ever; so that the Leinster army routed their foes with dreadful slaughter. From this event the place came to be called Ardlemnachta, the height of the new milk. Sometimes other words for milk are found in names. Thus the name of Blittog in the parish of Donaghmoyne in Monaghan, is a diminutive on bliocht or bleacht, milk: - Bliochtóg, milk-land; meaning, I suppose, good milk-pasture.

Information From Griffith's Valution

Area in Acres, Roods and Perches:
A.R.P.
173 0 9
Land value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
70 12 2
Building value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
0 0 0
Total value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
70 12 2
Heads of housholds living in the townland at this time:

Townland Information

What is a townland?:
A townland is one of the smallest land divisions in Ireland. They range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. Many are Gaelic in origin, but some came into existence after the Norman invasion of 1169
Townland:
Knockavanny is a townland.

Information From Maps

Original OS map of this area.
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Ireland was first mapped in the 1840s. These original maps are available online.
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Knockavanny
Original OS maps at the Ordnance Survey of Ireland website.
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This link is not a link to the townland that you are currently researching; however, if you follow this link, you will see a search box near the top of the page which you can use to search for your townland.
Having followed this link, you will see several expandable links - each link has a plus sign on its left - on the top left of the page. Expand 'Base Information and Mapping'. Now it is possible to select the maps that you wish to view by clicking on the checkbox that is on the left of each map; this list includes the original Ordnance Survey maps.
You can select more than one map and you can use a slider to make one map more transparent than another. This allows you to view what features were present or absent at different points in time.
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Knockavanny
Information from the Down Survey Website.
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The Down Survey website will tell you who owned this townland in 1641 (pre Cromwell) and in 1671 (post Cromwell).
Down Survey Website
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Information from Google Maps.
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You can use this link to find this townland on Google Maps.
Google Maps
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Information from the National Monuments Service.
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You can use this link to view a map of archaelogical features.
This link brings you to a website wherein you will have to search for your townland.
Archaeological map from the National Monuments Service

Neighbouring Townlands

List of townlands that share a border with this townland:
This is a list of townlands that share a border with this townland.

Population and Census Information

People who lived here:
You can retrieve a list of people who lived in this townland from 1827 to 1911. This list is compiled from the following resources.
  • The Tithe Applotment Books
  • Griffith's Valuation
  • 1901 Census
  • 1911 Census
List of nineteenth century and early twentieth century inhabitants of this townland.
Church records of births, deaths and marriages:
Church records of births, deaths and marriages are available online at http://www.rootsireland.ie. To search these records you will need to know the 'church parish' rather than the 'civil parish'. (The civil parish is the pre-reformation parish and was frequently used as a unit of administration in the past.)
Knockavanny is in the civil parish of Tuam Parish.
Roman Catholic parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Roman Catholic parish or parishes.
  • Tuam
Church of Ireland parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish.
  • Tuam
In general, the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same, but, this is not always the case.

Other Sources

Information from the Logainm database.
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