Alt Upper

61 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Alt Upper, from 562 m² to 257,600 m² (25.76 ha, 63.65 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 24 neighbouring parcels touch it.

Download the townland: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings; GeoJSON or KML.

No zone of a development plan covers Alt Upper in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

• 30 Jun 2021Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL SLATTED SHED AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2151311

• 27 Jan 2021Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF A SUNROOM TO EXISTING HOUSE AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2150101

• 8 Jan 2021N/a

  CONSTRUCTION OF A SUNROOM TO THE RIGHT OF EXISTING HOUSE

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2150012

• 25 Sept 2020Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE, DETACHED DOMESTIC GARAGE, SEPTIC TANK/SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2051375

• 18 Sept 2020N/a

  CONSTRUCTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE, DETACHED DOMESTIC GARAGE, SEPTIC TANK/SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2051317

• 7 Oct 2019Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF AN EXTENSION TO AN EXISTING AGRICULTURAL SHED AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 1951517

• 9 May 2018Conditional

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH SEPTIC TANK AND PERCOLATION AREA

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 1850739

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches the townland of Alt Upper.

Recorded monuments

• DG088-001 Megalithic tomb - unclassified
  Description

  There is no trace of this feature, which was first shown on the original OS 6-inch map (1836), where it is named 'Giant's Grave'. It stood on a gentle fall of ground c. 4km S of the River Finn and close to the E side of a by- road c. 5km S of Castlefinn. It is described in the OS Memoirs (1836) as 'some remarkable stones having the appearance of antiquity and called the Giant's Grave. The stones are five in number, three standing and two fallen, the largest standing stone is 5 feet [c. 1.5m] high, and seems sunk about 1 foot [c. 0.3m] in the ground—the two fallen are each 6 feet [c. 1.8m] in length, about 4 feet [c. 1.2m] broad and 2 feet [c. 0.6m] thick.' Thomas Fagan (1845-8) described it as 'the ruins of a Giant's Grave which seem to have been 20 feet [c. 6.1m] long and 5 to 7 feet [c. 1.5m to 2.15m] wide'. It lay almost N-S, and only two stones were then in place, with two others lying prostrate. The two set stones stood opposite each other, one to the E and the other to the W. The former measured 5 feet (c. 1.5m) high, 51/2 feet (c. 1.7m) broad and 1-2 feet (c. 0.3-0.6m) thick. The western stone was 21/2 feet (c. 0.75m) high, 51/2 feet (c. 1.7m) long and 1 foot (c. 0.3m) thick. The prostrate stones were to the N of the two just described. One measured 61/2 feet (c. 2m) by 3 feet 9 inches (c. 1.15m) by up to 3 feet (c. 0.9m) thick. The other measured 7 feet (c. 2.15m) by 51/2 feet (c. 1.7m) by 2-3 feet (c. 0.6-0.9m) thick. According to an entry in an OS 1:2,500 Name Book, there were some stones at the site in 1904, but their number and status are not clear from the account. These had been removed by 1952. The stones referred to in the mid-19th-century accounts may have formed part of a megalithic tomb, with perhaps the two upright stones noted by Fagan serving as orthostats at either side of a chamber or gallery. However, without more information the nature of the site must remain uncertain. OS Memoirs, Urney Parish (1836), 71, 73; Fagan 1845-8, book 12, 16; OS 1:2, 500 Name Book, sheet 88 (1904), 3; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 46, no. 140; SMR 1987, 88:1; Ó Nualláin 1989, 142; RMP 1995, 88:1. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Architectural heritage

• Alt Presbyterian Church, church/chapel, 1830–1840 · Regional interest
  Description

  Freestanding gable-fronted four-bay double-height Presbyterian church\meeting house, built c. 1834, having pedimented entrance front to the east, central pedimented Doric entrance porch to the entrance gable (east), bellcote in the form of an aedicule over the entrance gable (east), and with two-bay single-storey vestry attached to the west end of the south elevation (c. 1900). Modern single-storey outbuilding and\or boiler room attached to the north-west corner. Two-bay elevation to south, four-bay to north. Pitched natural slate roof to main body of building having clay ridge tiles, moulded raised rendered verges\cornices to the gable ends with cut stone urn over gable apex to the west and classical aedicule bellcote to the gable apex to the east, and with replacement cast-iron rainwater goods. Moulded render stringcourse to entrance gable (east) forming pediment. Pitched leaded roof to pedimented porch. Hipped artificial slate roof to later vestry, mono-pitched corrugated-metal roof to outbuilding attached to the north-west. Smooth-rendered ruled-and-lined walls with Tuscan pilasters to the corners of the entrance front. Smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walls to vestry having raised render block-and-start quoins to the corners. Pointed-headed window openings to side elevations having replacement fittings. Three pointed-arched window openings to the west gable end, that to centre having leaded stained glass window. Square-headed window openings to vestry having replacement timber windows. Square-headed doorway to porch having replacement timber double-doors. Square-headed doorway to east face of vestry having replacement door. Stucco pedimented Doric entrance porch to the centre of the entrance gable having triglyph frieze and mutules. Cast-iron balustrade to pulpit, fixed timber pews, timber panelled boarded coved ceiling. Set back from road in own grounds to the south of Castlefinn close to the border with County Tyrone. Graveyard to south with collection of mainly upstanding memorials of nineteenth and twentieth-century date. Detached five-bay single-storey former national school or Sunday school (see 40907935) adjacent to the east. Rubble stone boundary walls to the east of site, rendered walls to other boundaries. Main gateway to the east of site comprising a pair of cast-iron gate posts (on square-plan) and with a pair of decorative cast-iron gates. Gateway flanked to either side (north and south) by sections of rendered boundary wall with decorative cast-iron railings over. Gateway to the north-east of site having a pair of decorative cast-iron gate posts (on circular-plan) having a wrought-iron flat bar gate.

• Kiln, 1840–1900 · Regional interest
  Description

  Pair of freestanding single-bay lime kilns on square-plan, erected c. 1860 and c. 1880, and altered c. 1920. Now out of use. Constructed of rubble stone masonry. Segmental-headed opening to front elevation (south) of kiln to west, the former oven aperture, having three courses of red brick voussoirs to arch. Former loading chamber on ovoid/circular-plan to the north having rubble masonry construction; chamber now partially collapsed. Altered square-headed opening to kiln to the east having blockwork construction to oven aperture with concrete lintel over. Built into hillock adjacent to small rural road to the south of Castlefinn. Earthen embankment to rear, formerly giving access to loading chamber. Former quarry located a short distance to the north-west.

• Alt National School, school, 1850–1870 · Regional interest
  Description

  Detached five-bay single-storey former national school, built c. 1860. Now out of use, in use as an outbuilding associated with Alt Presbyterian church\meeting house (see 40907916) adjacent to the west. Pitched natural slate roof with grey clayware ridge tiles, and with smooth rendered brick chimneystacks to the gable ends (north and south). Cast-iron rooflight to the rear pitch (west). Roughcast rendered walls over rubble stone construction. Smooth cement rendered walls to the south gable end. Square-headed window openings with stone sills and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorway to the south end of the east elevation having replacement battened timber door. Road-fronted adjacent to Alt Presbyterian church\meeting house with later single-storey school adjacent to the east.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility moderately high, moderately low, low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Alt Upper.

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Alt Upper with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Donegal.

Name

Alt Upper · An tAllt Uachtarach

Area

2,498,055 m² (249.81 ha, 617.28 acres)

Civil parish

Urney, and its townlands

Barony

Raphoe South

Electoral division

Urney West, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Urney West electoral division: 640 people in 217 households; 86% of households own their home; 39% of homes were built since 2001; 7% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 0% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Alt Lower, Calhame, Gortnagrace, Gortnamuck, Raws Lower, Raws Upper

Placenames

Alt Upper on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.