476 
which is the largest single denomination called a townland, in Ireland, 
contains 7012 acres; while Mill Tenement, a several denomination of 
like rank, in the parish of Ardclinis, county of Antrim,* does not ex- 
ceed 1 acre, 1 rood, 1 perch. In mountainous districts, like the barony 
of Ballynahinch, in Galway, the Mourne Mountains, in Down, and some 
ranges in Donegal, we meet with single tracts called townlands, from 
five to six thousand acres in extent; then again, coming to the valleys 
in the same counties, we find patches in the shape of townlands of very 
small dimensions. There is in the parish of Kilclief, in the county of 
Down, a little townland of 4a. 3r. 2p., called Acre M‘Cricket,} that is, 
Mac-Richard’s Acre, which for ages formed a portion of the large 
Fitz Simon property, but in later times derived its severalty from its be- 
coming, after successive subtractions, almost the sole residuum of the 
old family estate.} 
As regards the acreable average of townlands in the various counties, 
it is to be observed that it is not regulated by the general productive- 
ness of the land.§ One might expect to find the highest average in 
wild mountainous counties like Mayo, Galway, and Donegal, and the 
lowest in level and fertile ones, like Meath and King’s County. But it 
is not so. Down, which is a very fruitful county (though, no doubt, 
it owes a great deal to improvement created by industry since the de- 
nominational boundaries were fixed), has the maximum average, or 457 
acres to the townland. After which come, successively, Donegal, 432 ; 
Kerry and King’s County, 415; Antrim, 409; Londonderry, 408 ; 
Mayo, 382. The minimum average is Monaghan, which is only 172; 
then Fermanagh, 184; Dublin, 206; Cavan, 233. 
This great difference between the extremes, 172 and 457, must have 
had its origin in the civil peculiarities of the districts, while in the pos- 
session of the original inhabitants. Monaghan and Fermanagh,|| two 
contiguous counties which have the lowest average, thereby denoting 
the minutest subdivision, were found at the close of the sixteenth cen- 
tury to consist of a certain number of ballybetaghs, each of which con- 
tained 4 quarters, and each quarter 4 tates,—that is, in each ballybetagh 
16 tates—a name peculiar to these two territories, the patrimonies re- 
spectively of Mac Mahon and Maguire. The tate was estimated at 
60 acres native, and a sixteenth, instead of the more usual twelfth, 
was the unit; and this, continuing in local use, afterwards came to be 
stereotyped in these parts as a townland on the Ordnance Survey. 
* Ordnance Survey, Antrim, sheet 25. 
+ Ordnance Survey, Down, sheet 31. 
t The townland Isle M‘Cricket, in the same parish, consists of but 8 acres and 37 
perches.—Ord. Surv., Down, sheet 38. 
, § Ware says that the quantity of a carucate or plowland is “ greater or less, accord- 
ing to the nature or quality of the soil.” Works, vol. ii., p. 31. 
|| The Surveys of the Counties of Monaghan and Fermanagh, made in 1591 and 1603, 
two very valuable documents, are printed in the introduction to the Ulster Inquisitions. 
