Know Your Townland – Craggataska/Craig an Teasca

The crag where trees were cut or ‘lopped’. This townland, while not small, has remained sparsely populated since a high of 200 in 1840 to about 40 fifty years later. The small population and few dwellings has remained much the same since. It was best identified by the presence of The Smith’s Forge, the remains of which can still be seen today.

· 0.8436 km² / 0.33 square miles / 208 acres

Griffiths Valuation 1855

The following owners of property are listed for Craggataska:

Michael O’Halloran, Mary O’Halloran, Daniel Pewter, Hewitt Bridgeman, John Donnellan, Charles G O’Callaghan

1841: 30 houses; Population 201             1871: 10 houses; Population 38

1851: 15 houses; Population 93              1881: 7 houses; Population 47

1861: 10 houses; Population 58              1891: 6 houses; Population 44

https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/statistics/archive/census1851/THE_CENSUS_OF_IRELAND_1851_-_Clare.pdf

1911 Census

The following persons are listed as being present in 5 households in Craggataska:

John (blacksmith) & Ann O’Halloran, daughter Bridget, son Michael.

Bridget O’Brien, sons Patrick, John.

Michael & Mary Donnellan, sons John, Martin.

Patrick Pewter, son Martin, daughter Lizzie.

George O’Brien.

National Monuments

Fulacht Fiadh CL034-198

Cashel CL034-160–

‘It is a ring of filling with lines of facing-blocks, enough to show that the wall was 12 feet thick, and the garth 102 feet wide, with curved enclosures inside. Both the facing and filling were small, which accounts for its complete overthrow. It had a rounded annexe to the north, whence an ancient road ran across the crags towards Cahercalla triple fort to the north-east. It is on a craggy upland, with a wide view to Aughty and Tulla’. TJ Westropp 1901

https://clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/archaeology/ringforts_eastern_clare_tjwestropp.htm#160

The Smith’s Cross Forge

(with thanks to Ann McNamara)

At the entrance to the west doorway of Quin Abbey is the O’Halloran tombstone, with the tools of the blacksmith trade-an anvil, a bellows, a horseshoe as well as an arm holding a hammer-represented on a band across the top of the slab. On the tombstone is written Michael, Jeremiah and Danial O’Halloran as a token of filial duty to the memory of their father Thomas O’Halloran, Corbally, who departed this life in 1836, aged 75 years (born 1761). Michael, who is mentioned on the tombstone, came to Craggataska around the 1830’s and established the forge shown above at The Smith’s Cross. In the Griffiths Valuation of 1855 it shows him as having a house, land and a forge at Craggataska. His son Michael, born in 1822, worked the forge until his death in 1899. He passed on the property and trade to his son John, born in 1869. In turn, the forge passed on to James, who worked the forge with his brother Michael, until the latter moved to Dublin to work there.

Marriages of women from Craggataska 1833-1880

Births within Craggataska 1820-1880