Balsoon

22 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Balsoon, from 38 m² to 601,775 m² (60.18 ha, 148.7 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 10 neighbouring parcels touch it.

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

• P5RA - Rural Area (Mixed/general primary sector uses, including 'rural')
  Meath County Development Plan 2021-2027 (As Varied), Meath · 32 parcels The zoning objective in the plan

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

No planning application touches the townland of Balsoon in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

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

Designated sites

• Special Area of Conservation: River Boyne and River Blackwater SAC 002299
• Special Protection Area: River Boyne and River Blackwater SPA 004232

Recorded monuments

• ME031-020 Church
  Description

  Situated on a slight rise in a fairly level landscape, with a slight slope down to the N and a greater slope down to the W where a SSE-NNW section of the River Boyne is c. 100m distant. A church at villa Riparii is listed in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302-06) of Pope Nicholas IV (Cal. doc. Ire. 5, 255). Ussher (1620) describes the church and chancel of Ripperstowne als Balsome as in reasonable repair (Erlington 1847-64, lxiii). According to Dopping (1682-5) the church and chancel were in disrepair since 1641 and it was not enclosed (Ellison 1972, 7). The parish church of Balsoon is now within a neglected rectangular graveyard (dims c. 35m N-S; c. 25m E-W) defined by masonry walls, which has three headstones dating from 1750-1840 (FitzGerald 1904-06, 589). This is a rectangular building (int. dims 14.45m E-W; 5.25m N-S) represented by the E gable, which has had a large window removed (Wth of embrasure 1.85m), and a portion of the S wall (L c. 4m; H 2.5m) with a rectangular light (Wth 0.35m; H 0.77m) in a lintelled embrasure and the E jamb for a doorway further W. A rounded chancel arch (Wth 1.16m; H 2m) is in an inserted wall that is not bonded to the church walls and divides it into two cells, the W (dim. 7.3m E-W) and the E (dim. 6.55m E-W). Three fragments of the early 17th century Eliot graveslab (dims 1.03m x 0.95m) were recovered in the graveyard and are now just W of the inserted chancel wall (Ball-Wright 1887-8, 463 5). The Latin inscription, deeply incised in gothic lettering, is running around the edge, with heraldic shields representing the Elliot, Smart, Might, Rochfort and Ussher families at the centre. The graveslab was examined again by FitzGerald (1904-06, 590) who translates the inscription as: ‘..Baron of the Exchequer, and Ismay Rochfort his wife, erected this chapel. She died x..’ Ismay was married to Sir John Eliot who died in 1616. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload/revision: 9 January 2015

• ME031-020001 Graveyard
  Description

  Situated on a slight rise in a fairly level landscape, with a slight slope down to the N and a greater slope down to the W where a SSE-NNW section of the River Boyne is c. 100m distant. The parish church of Balsoon (ME031-020----) is within a neglected rectangular graveyard (dims c. 35m N-S; c. 25m E-W) defined by masonry walls, which has three headstones dating from 1750-1840 (FitzGerald 1904-06, 589). According to Dopping's visitation (1682-5) the graveyard was not then enclosed (Ellison 1972, 7). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 9 January, 2015

• ME031-020002 Graveslab
  Description

  Three fragments of the early 17th century Eliot graveslab (dims 1.03m x 0.95m) were recovered in the graveyard of Balsoon church (ME031-020----) and are now just W of the inserted chancel wall (Ball-Wright 1887-8, 463-5). The Latin fragmentary inscription, deeply incised in gothic lettering, is running around the edge, with heraldic shields representing the Elliot, Smart, Might, Rochfort and Ussher families are at the centre. The graveslab was examined again by FitzGerald (1904-06, 590) who translates the inscription as: ‘..Baron of the Exchequer, and Ismay Rochfort his wife, erected this chapel. She died x..’ Ismay was married to Sir John Eliot who died in 1616. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 9 January, 2015

• ME031-021 Castle - unclassified
  Description

  A roofed gabled structure is depicted at Balsoon on the Down Survey (1656-8) barony map of Deece (http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Josaline Usher owned 169 acres there in 1640 and on the premises were ‘a stone house and a church’ (Simington 1940, 135). It is depicted as an oblong structure on the 1908 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. It is situated on a level landscape with a SSE-NNW section of the River Boyne c. 80m to the W and the parish church of Balsoon (ME031-020----) is c. 60m to the N. An oblong structure (int. dims 18.5m N-S; 3.28m E-W) has a barrel-vault with traces of wicker-centring. The vault is covered by an overgrown earthen mound and divided into 5 chambers by inserted walls. A lintelled doorway towards the N end of the E wall is the original entrance. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 9 June 2016

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Balsoon.

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

At the centre of the townland of Balsoon, about 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as moderately high, moderately low, low, partly inferred. Parts of the land are water.

Terrain model

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_2707 (ZIP).

Flooding

The Office of Public Works publishes its flood maps on floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, and Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland, both under 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 Balsoon with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Meath.

Name

Balsoon · Baile Easúin

Area

849,428 m² (84.94 ha, 209.9 acres)

Civil parish

Balsoon, and its townlands

Barony

Deece Lower

Electoral division

Kilcooly, the unit of the census

Census 2022

408 people lived in 131 households in the Kilcooly electoral division. 88% of households owned their home. 27% of homes were built since 2001. 6% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 0% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Assey, Balgill, Ballina or Bective, Bective, Craystown or Ennistown

Placenames

Balsoon 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.