The Barony of Burren is a geographical division of

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

, Ireland, that in turn is divided into

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

. It covers a large part of

the Burren The Burren (; ) is a karst/glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland.
Burren ...

Legal context

Baronies were created after the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanc ...

as divisions of

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and were used the administration of justice and the raising of revenue. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they have been administratively obsolete since 1898. However, they continue to be used in land registration and in specification, such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

túath which had submitted to the Crown.

Landscape

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland 1845 describes the barony as follows:

History

The district was once called Cean-gan, which means "the external promontory".

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

wrote this name as Gan-ganii. Later it was called Hy-Loch-Lean, which means "the district on the waters of the sea". The present name of Burren means a distant part of a country. In 1841 the population of the barony was 12,786 in 2,056 houses, mostly engaged in agriculture.

Parishes and settlements

The barony contains the civil parishes of

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

Carran Carran (), also Carron, is a small village in County Clare, Ireland. It is in the Burren region, within a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of the same name. It is notable mainly for being the birthplace of Michael Cusack, the inspi ...

, Drumcreehy, Glaninagh,

Kilcorney Kilcorney or Kilcorny () is a small village and civil parish in the barony of Muskerry West in northwest County Cork, Ireland. It is situated approximately 38 km northwest of Cork, 17 km north of Macroom, and 7 km east of Mills ...

, Kilonahan, Kilheny,

Kilmoon Kilmoon ( ga, Cill Mhúine) is a civil parish of County Clare, Ireland, north of Ennistymon. The parish contains the town of Lisdoonvarna. History The parish was listed as "Kilmugoun" in the Papal taxation of 1302. There is a Romanesque standi ...

, Noughoval,

Oughtmama Oughtmama ( ga, Ucht Máma) is a civil parish in County Clare. It lies in the Burren, a region in the northwest of the county. It contains many antiquities, including three early-medieval Christian churches, ruined castles, prehistoric cairns ...

, and Rathborney. It contains the villages of

, Burren, Behagh, Bealaclugga, Currenroe,

Ballyvaughan Ballyvaughan or Ballyvaghan () is a small harbour village in County Clare, Ireland. It is located on the N67 road on the south shores of Galway Bay, in the northwest corner of The Burren. This position on the coast road and the close proximity ...

, Ballyconree, Ballinacraggy, Loughrusk,

Gleninagh Gleninagh or Glaninagh ( ga, Gleann Eidhneach) is a civil parish in County Clare, Ireland. It lies in the extreme northwest of the Burren, on the south of the mouth of Galway Bay. It is known for the well-preserved L-plan Gleninagh Castle, a 1 ...

, Murroghkelly, Murroghtwohy, Fermoyle,

Noughaval Noughaval or Nohoval ( ga, Nuachabháil) is a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Clare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Name The name of the parish means "new acquisition" or "new settlement". Geography Location The parish lies ...

, Aughnish and Finavara.

References

Citations Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burren, Barony of Baronies of County Clare