The name Creevagh is usually associated with ‘bushy land’ (Craobhach) but in the case of the Quin townlands, its origin is supposedly attached to the Creagh family name. They have had a presence in this area since Cromwellian times, residing mostly in the nearby Danganbrack townland. This particular family was given this land in compensation for loss of title and properties in Limerick City. The Down Survey recorded this land as Creevagh within the same period of time and the name pre-dates the land appropriation. More information on the Creagh family can be found elsewhere and at the end of this post.
Creevagh More is contained within an area of 1.35 square km’s or 335 acres, while Creevagh Beg is contained within an area of 0.95 square km’s or 234 acres. Creevagh was one townland originally but later divided into the two we have inherited today. The first recorded separation of the townland is in 1727. It has always been sparsely populated and remains like that today, agriculture being the main use. The presence of the big houses of Abbey View, Dangan Castle and Creevagh dominated the larger of these two townlands.
Down Survey Name & records:
The Down Survey was undertaken (by soldiers)to facilitate the transfer of properties from the original owners to soldiers and ‘adventurers’ (despite the fact that Clare was supposed to have been reserved for transplanted Catholics). Information was laid ‘down’ in map format from 1651 onwards. Two records can be traced but these may not coincide with what we now refer to as Creevagh More and Beg.
Down Survey Name: Creevagh. 1641 Owner(s): Dr Thomas Arthur (Catholic). 1670 Owner: Dr Edmund Marae(Protestant). 1659 Census Total: 61 of which English: 61 (note that ‘English’ here may refer to allegiance rather than nationality ie the number in inhabitants who have stated allegiance to the crown and have undertaken to abide by the new order).
Down Survey Name: Creaghanenashynagh(!). 1641 Owner: Sir Rowland Delahide(Catholic). 1670 Owner: James Power(Catholic). Profitable land: 39 plantation acres, Forfeited: 39 plantation acres
County Clare was one of the western counties reserved for displaced loyal Catholics. One third of Irelands land mass was already under Protestant ownership on Cromwells arrival, mostly on the east coast, so most displacement occurred in remaining midlands and towns to areas like Clare. These were usually people of property. Note that ‘owner’ referred to above may have a different connotation to ‘property’ owner (eg ecclesiastical, magisterial).
In 1582 the townland is recorded as ‘ann sa Croibigh’ (Abhainn sa Craobhach?) in a manuscript HID Leathanach: 55
Creevagh More
Although Dangabrack (An Daingean Breac) Castle is associated with the townland after which it is named, the entrance driveway cuts through Creevagh More.
1855 Occupiers and lessors recorded in Griffiths valuation : Carmody(2), Mullins, Corbett(2), Scanlan(3), Slattery, Meaney, Moylan, Neylan, Cooley, Scott (see https://landedestates.ie/estate/1786 )
1891 Census: Population 50 persons
1901 family names recorded in Creevagh More: Corbett, McNamara, Burke, Singleton, Carmody, Scanlon, O’Donoghue, Moylan, Meany (50 persons)
1911 Census: 36 persons (18 male, 18 female)
Creevagh Beg
1825 Tithe payees in Creevagh Beg
Tithes were a tax on agricultural produce which was payable by the occupiers of agricultural land. They were the main source of income for the parish clergy of the Church of Ireland (the largest Protestant church and the church established by law).
Tithe Applotment family names: McNamara(3), Power(3), Hickey(1), Hallaran(1), White(1), O’Dea(1), Fleming(1), Adams(1), Moran(1), Moylan(1)
Note: There is only one family name recorded within Creevagh More(Grevaghmore): Sett
1855 Occupiers and lessors recorded in Griffiths valuation : Power(2), Savage, O’Dea(2), McNamara, Lyons, Lynch, Callaghan, O’Callaghan, Hawe
1891 Census: 61 persons
1901 Census: 44 persons
1911 Census: 32 persons (17 male, 15 female)
Creevagh Ringforts
Ringforts were enclosed farmsteads which can date back to 500 BC. They are usually circular in plan and can measure from 20 to 60 metres in diameter. They were enclosed by one or more earthen banks.
Creevagh More: (CL034-14401): Across the river an extent of rich meadow and tilled land surrounds a gently rising hill on which is a remarkable fort. The fort on the summit is a circular ring-wall; the faces are nearly destroyed; but enough remains among the heaps of filling (15 to over 20 feet wide, and 3 or 4 feet high) to show that it was from 12 to 16 feet thick, and apparently in one piece, the double wall not, so far as I know, occurring in this group. The garth is 102 feet wide, and the whole ring about 130 feet across.
Westropp 1909
“Most of the forts have garths practically level with the field, or, at most, slightly terraced up like the saddle-backed Knockadoon, or the Rath of Creevaghmore, the latter having beside it on the summit of the slope, a stone fort like a citadel, and evidently the earlier of the two, as the lower earth-work runs down the slope, and is adapted to the caher.”
Creevaghbeg (CL034-15403/-146) Beside the faint traces of two small forts at the Rine, there is another caher, thickly planted with hawthorns, near the great fort. It has a wall greatly dilapidated, nearly circular outside, evidently 12 feet thick; but the debris is heaped outside for 16 feet more; the garth is 78 feet across. It has a curious feature worth recording. The inner 33 face of the wall is nearly intact, and is built in short straight lengths about 40 feet long, forming a fairly regular hexagon. Elsewhere measured as 84 feet internal diameter; walls, 7 and 8 feet thick; door, E.N.E., and described as a Caher.
Westropp 1909
“There was a stone fort in Creevaghbeg in the later seventeenth century, called Caherumine in the “Book of Survey” in 1655; Cahermine, Cahermunigan, in a grant of 1660, Caherbane in 1675 and Cahermine in 1679. If these forms give us Cahermeane, “the middle fort,” they probably refer to the above caher, it being near the middle of the townland with other forts around it. Caherbane would still be a very appropriate title, as, on a sunny day, its white limestone walls form a conspicuous object.”
For more information on this topic see https://ebw.pms.mybluehost.me/ancient-forts-around-quin/
Abbey View House-Creevagh More
Abbey View house was lived in by the Reverend Patrick Corbett until his death in 1893, aged eighty-seven. He was the nephew of the Most Reverend Patrick MacMahon, Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, who died in 1836. The house was standing in 1841. A new twentieth-century house stands on the original site, the property of the Enright family.
Associated families: O’Brien, Reynolds (Abbey View, Co. Clare 1802), Corbett, Conway, Enright.
Another ‘big-house’ called Creevagh House existed in this townland and was ‘in-ruins’ at the time of the first OS survey. Little is known of this house.
Creevagh Bridge
Marked on the first OS 6” map as Creevagh New Bridge, it was also colloquially known as ‘The Wailing Bridge’. The road crossing the River Rine brought travellers from the west via Crusheen to Kilmurry and on to Limerick. It was the point at which departing emigrants heading to the emigrant boat in Cobh left their families behind.
From 1930’s Schools Folklore Collection:
Poulnamuck (Poll na Muc) Creevagh More. In the bad times there lived a poor man who had a large family near the Caves in Abbeyview, Quin. As he wasn’t allowed to keep any fowl, he had neither cock or hen to kill, to shed blood in honour of St.Martin. He had one pig and on St.Martin’s Night in order to honour the Saint he said he would “bleed” the pig .The pig bled to death, but on the following morning, a sow with a litter of bonhams, came out of one of the caves, into his yard.From that day to this, the cave is called Poll na Muc. Informant: John Sammon
Patchen na Cainnte. There was an old man living in Creevagh named Patchen na Cainnte he used to go out at night and dance a hornpipe with his shadow and when finished he would say, is breagh an rinnce é sin.
Collector: Joe O’Halloran, Informant: John O’Halloran
Creagh Family name
The townland name has its origin in the Irish word Craobh, meaning branch of a tree. The story goes that the Creagh clan wore laurel tree branches in their helmets going into battle, leading to the creation of the family name (Creagh/Craobhach). The family name is said to have existed in this area since ancient times, if so, is this the same family that were transplanted to here from Limerick or an attempt to insert the family into the local history, folklore, placename?
Under the Act of Settlement, Pierce Creagh (a Roman Catholic) was awarded the McNamara lands at Dangan Castle and Knappogue. Creagh was a former Mayor of Limerick in 1651. He died at Dangan in 1670. His great grandson, also Pierce Creagh, married three times and was survived by three sons. The eldest, Robert Creagh of Dangan, was succeeded by his nephews, Richard, and then, Cornelius Creagh, who owned over 6,000 acres in County Clare in the 1870s. Most of the Creagh estate was in the barony of Burren, parishes of Killeany and Kilmoon and in the parish of Quin, barony of Bunratty Upper.
https://creaghefamilyhistoricalsociety.com/family-of-creagh/
Other Website references
https://clarelibraries.ie/services/local-studies-genealogy-and-archives/
https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php
https://ebw.pms.mybluehost.me/
https://historicgraves.com/search/node/Creevagh for information on some of those from Creevagh buried in local cemeteries.
Mick Maguire
August 2024
