# Gortfad, Co. Donegal: townland, land parcels and planning

Townland in the civil parish of Donaghmore, barony of Raphoe South, Co. Donegal.

- Area (Tailte Éireann): 1,057,670 m² (105.77 ha, 261.36 acres)
- Land parcels (Tailte Éireann): 11 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in it, median 49,843 m² (4.98 ha, 12.32 acres)
- Zoning (national zoning, MyPlan): not in a zoned settlement
- Planning (National Planning Applications): 2 applications since 2010
- Civil parish: Donaghmore, https://everytownland.com/donegal/parish/donaghmore.md
- Barony: Raphoe South
- Electoral division: Castlefinn, the unit of the census
- Census 2022 (Central Statistics Office): 1,252 people lived in 488 households in the Castlefinn electoral division. 67% of households owned their home. 24% of homes were built since 2001. 9% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 1% were holiday homes.
- County: Co. Donegal, https://everytownland.com/donegal.md
- Placenames Database of Ireland: https://www.logainm.ie/en/16135
- Townland number at Tailte Éireann: 51405
- Centre: latitude 54.808362, longitude -7.568517 (WGS 84)

## Land parcels (registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann)

11 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Gortfad, from 1,077 m² to 337,191 m² (33.72 ha, 83.32 acres); 24 neighbouring parcels touch its boundary. Largest first:

- Parcel 1393772: 337,191 m² (33.72 ha, 83.32 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1393772.md
- Parcel 1331459: 307,271 m² (30.73 ha, 75.93 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1331459.md
- Parcel 1331204: 149,794 m² (14.98 ha, 37.01 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1331204.md
- Parcel 1340057: 92,024 m² (9.2 ha, 22.74 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1340057.md
- Parcel 5243709: 60,458 m² (6.05 ha, 14.94 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/5243709.md
- Parcel 1315107: 49,843 m² (4.98 ha, 12.32 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1315107.md
- Parcel 1305381: 38,399 m² (3.84 ha, 9.49 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1305381.md
- Parcel 1352898: 17,943 m² (1.79 ha, 4.43 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/1352898.md
- Parcel 5278652: 1,667 m², https://everytownland.com/parcel/5278652.md
- Parcel 5278675: 1,304 m², https://everytownland.com/parcel/5278675.md
- Parcel 1362039: 1,077 m², https://everytownland.com/parcel/1362039.md

## Zoning (national zoning of development plans, MyPlan)

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

## Planning applications whose site touches the townland (National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage)

2 applications, newest first.

- 5 Jul 2024, Donegal County Council 2461030: Conditional. Permission. DEMOLITION OF AN EXISTING DERELICT TWO STOREY DWELLING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SHED TO INCLUDE ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS. File: https://www.eplanning.ie/DonegalCC/AppFileRefDetails/2461030/0
- 4 Jun 2024, Donegal County Council 2460816: N/a. Permission. DEMOLITION OF AN EXISTING DERELICT TWO STOREY DWELLING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SHED, TO INCLUDE ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS. File: https://www.eplanning.ie/DonegalCC/AppFileRefDetails/2460816/0

Applicants are not shown.

## Designated sites (National Parks and Wildlife Service)

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

## Recorded monuments (Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service)

- DG079-007: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2CDG079-007----. This monument, demolished sometime between 1985 and 1991, stood 1.75km SSE of Site A in Kilmonaster Middle townland. It has been interpreted as a cruciform passage tomb (Ó Nualláin 1983a). Before its destruction there were five set stones and a number of displaced slabs at the site. A terminal chamber at the SW and a side- chamber at right angles to it toward the S appeared to be present. Two opposed orthostats, large well-matched slabs, seemed to represent the sides of the terminal chamber. This measured lm wide and at least 2.5m long. A low stone, possibly a sill, and a tall stone opposite it seemed to mark the front and back of the side-chamber, which was 0.8m long. The fifth set stone at the site stood where a presumed passage would have opened onto the chambers. It was low and may have been a sillstone. Fagan 1845-8, book 12, 5; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 37, no. 87; SMR 1987, 79:7; Ó Nualláin 1989, 128; RMP 1995, 79:7. 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
- DG079-008: Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2CDG079-008----. This destroyed monument stood in rolling pasture 2km NE of Castlefinn and 2km NW of where the River Finn changes its eastward course to flow north-eastward to Lough Foyle and the sea. A passage tomb, now also destroyed, stood c. 400m to the W in the same townland. The cairn-topped Croaghan Hill, 2km distant, is visible to the NE, and nearby Crossy Hill limits the outlook to the ESE. The monument consisted of two large set stones, 1.4m apart, standing in a low mound composed largely of field stones. The mound, subcircular in outline, measured c. 5m by 3.5m and was 0.7m high. The disposition of the two upright stones, their shapes and their relative heights identified them as the backstone, to the S, and the eastern portal-stone of a small chamber opening to the NNE. The southern stone, which leaned northward slightly, rose 1.3m above the base of the mound. This stone rose to a slight peak close to its eastern end. It had a flat inner and a sloping outer face and increased in thickness from top to base. The northern stone rose 0.4m above the top of the southern and leaned very slightly toward the E. Its northern half rose 1.7m above the base of the mound. The southern half of the stone sloped to around half that height. The most substantial of some scattered stones at the site measured 1.3m in maximum dimension. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) visited here in 1846, and it is clear from his account that it was then as described above. He identified it as 'the ruins of a giant's grave' and claimed that within local memory upright and prostrate stones had been removed from the site. Sometime between September 1984, when the plan published here was made, and September 1991 the tomb was demolished and the site levelled. At the latter date the two structural stones lay discarded against a field fence c. 40m SE of the spot they had occupied for so long. Fagan 1845-8, book 12, 5; SMR 1987, 79:8; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 79:8. 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 See linked document with details from Eamon Cody, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002)

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).

## Architectural heritage (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage)

- Gortfad House, house, 1860–1920, Regional interest, registry number 40907931, https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=DG&regno=40907931. Detached three-bay two-storey house, built or rebuilt c. 1880 and remodelled c. 1910, having projecting full-height box bays to either end of main elevation (south-west), central open porch to main elevation (south-west) having a pair of columns and with balcony over with open timber balustrade\parapet, and with two-storey return to the rear (north-east). Now also in use as a guest house. Pitched natural slate roofs to main body of building having terracotta ridge tiles, ornamental profiled cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets, projecting rendered eaves course, and with three rendered chimneystacks (one to either gable end, and one offset to the south-east of centre). Hipped natural slate roofs over box bay windows with terracotta ridge tiles, hipped natural slate roof to return. Smooth rendered ruled-and-line walls over moulded smooth rendered plinth with raised rendered block-and-start quoins with moulded surrounds and with pebbled decoration. Smooth rendered cement finish to box bay windows having decorative moulded plinths to base, moulded render pilaster strips to corners, and with decorative moulded render panels over ground floor openings having central circular motif flanked to either side by rectangular panels with curved inner faces. Paired segmental-headed window openings to box bay windows having rendered architrave surrounds and with one-over-one pane horned timber sliding sash windows; vermiculated keystone detail and continuous sills supported on render blocks with fielded faces to ground floor openings. Square-headed window openings with replacement fittings to rear and to return. Central recessed segmental-headed door opening to open porch having rendered architrave surround with keystone detail over, half-glazed timber door flanked by Arts and Crafts-style leaded sidelights over render stallrisers with architraved panels, and with Arts and Crafts-style leaded overlight. Segmental-headed doorway to balcony over main doorway having render architraved surround and replacement door. Moulded cornice to balcony over porch supported on rendered Doric-type columns (on circular-plan) over rendered pedestals with render architraves. Set back from road in extensive mature landscaped grounds to the north-east of Castlefinn. Garden to the west and south-west of site. Long approach avenue to house from the north-west and west.

## Ground and risks (Radon Risk Map of Ireland, EPA; Landslide Susceptibility Classification and LiDAR, Geological Survey Ireland)

- Radon: at the centre of the townland of Gortfad, about 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home: https://www.epa.ie/environment-and-you/radon/radon-testing/#d.en.82887
- Landslides: The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as moderately high, moderately low, low, partly inferred.
- Terrain model: LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_1868, https://gsi.geodata.gov.ie/downloads/LiDAR/OPW_NASC/OPW_1868.zip (ZIP).
- Flooding: the flood maps of the Office of Public Works, https://www.floodinfo.ie/map/floodmaps/, linked only: their licence does not allow re-use.

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.

## Downloads

- DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings, for a drawing program: https://everytownland.com/donegal/gortfad.dxf
- GeoJSON, in WGS 84, for a map: https://everytownland.com/donegal/gortfad.geojson
- KML, for Google Earth: https://everytownland.com/donegal/gortfad.kml

## Homes sold (Residential Property Price Register)

No address of the register names Gortfad with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Donegal: https://everytownland.com/donegal.md

## Neighbouring townlands (National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann)

- Ardnaglass: https://everytownland.com/donegal/ardnaglass-50098.md
- Castlefinn: https://everytownland.com/donegal/castlefinn.md
- Corcullion: https://everytownland.com/donegal/corcullion.md
- Gortin South: https://everytownland.com/donegal/gortin-south.md
- Legnabraid or Cunninghamstown: https://everytownland.com/donegal/legnabraid-or-cunninghamstown.md
- Stranamuck: https://everytownland.com/donegal/stranamuck.md
- Tawnacrom: https://everytownland.com/donegal/tawnacrom.md

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.

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Everytownland reads the registered freehold land and the statutory boundaries of Tailte Éireann, the national zoning, planning file and heritage records of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Residential Property Price Register. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee; this site names no owner. A price is the price recorded for a past sale, not a valuation.

Sources: Cadastral Parcels Freehold, Townlands, Civil Parishes, Baronies, Electoral Divisions and Buildings, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0; national zoning of development plans (GZT, MyPlan) and National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0, applicants not shown; designated sites, National Parks and Wildlife Service, CC BY 4.0; Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service, CC BY 4.0; National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, CC BY 4.0; Residential Property Price Register, Property Services Regulatory Authority, re-used with the source acknowledged.

- Page: https://everytownland.com/donegal/gortfad
- In JSON: https://everytownland.com/api/townland/donegal/gortfad