Inishcaltra ( ga, Inis Cealtra) is a

civil parish 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 authorit ...

in the barony of Leitrim in

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 118,81 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The main settlement in the parish is the village of

Mountshannon Mountshannon (, historically anglicised as ''Ballybolan'') is a village in east County Clare, Ireland. It is part of the Catholic parish Mountshannon-Whitegate. The village is on the western shore of Lough Derg, north of Killaloe. Mountshannon ...

. It is noted for the eponymous island of

Inis Cealtra Inis Cealtra, also known in English as Inishcaltra or Holy Island, is an island off the western shore of Lough Derg in Ireland. Now uninhabited, it was once a monastic settlement. It has an Irish round tower, and the ruins of several small chur ...

, which is an ancient Christian monastic site. In the Catholic Church, the parish is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Mountshannon (Clonrush).

Location

Inishcaltra is northeast of

Scarriff Scarriff Central Statistics Office, Census 2002Population of Towns ordered by County and size, 1996 and 2002 or Scariff () is a large village in east County Clare, Ireland, situated in the midwest of Ireland. The town is on the West end of Loug ...

. The parish is , and covers . It mostly is located on the western shore of Lough Derg and includes some of the lough's islands such as Red Island, Inniscalthra, Young's Island, Basley Island, and Cribby Island. There is a belt of low land along the lake, rising into the Slieve-Baughta mountains. The road from Scarriff towards

Portumna Portumna ( - meaning 'the landing place of the oak') is a market town in the south-east of County Galway, Ireland, on the border with and linked by a bridge to County Tipperary. The town is located to the west of the point where the River Shann ...

and

Loughrea Loughrea ( ; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies to the north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains, and the lake from which it takes its name. The town's cathedral, St Brendan's, dominates the town's skyline ...

runs along the lake shore.

History

The island of

after which the parish is named lies about from the shore. It is often called the Holy Island. It was the scene of pre-Christian religious activities. The pillar tower may have been used in sun worship. More recently the island was the site of Christian structures, including various cells or oratories, now ruined. The main church, ''Teampol Camin'', located in Mountshannon, is named after the founder or patron, Saint Camin who died around 658. Danish raids took place in 834, 908 and 946. The total population in 1841 was 2,378 in 383 houses. By 1851, after the famine, the number had dropped to 1,457 through emigration and deaths from starvation. The parish was in County Galway from 1610 to 1898. By the terms of the

Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, ...

, Inishcaltra and its neighbouring parish of

Clonrush Clonrush or Clonmulsk ( ga, Cluain Rois) is a civil parish in the barony of Leitrim, now in County Clare, Ireland. The largest settlement in the parish is Whitegate. Location Clonrush is to the southwest of Portumna. It is and covers of w ...

were transferred from the county of Galway to the county of Clare while remaining part of the barony of Leitrim.

Townlands

Townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

s of the parish are: Bohateh North, Bohateh South, Cappaduff, Cloonamirran, Cloontyconnaught, Cloontymweenagh, Coogypark, Cooldorragha, Curratober, Derroran East, Derroran West, Derrycon Lower, Derrycon Upper, Dooros, Glenwanish, Inishcaltra, Kilrateera Lower, Kilrateera Upper, Knockaphort, Magherareagh, Middleline North, Middleline South, Mountshannon, Sellernaun East, Sellernaun West and Woodpark.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * {{Civil parishes of County Clare Civil parishes of County Clare