Blackford

10 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Blackford, from 156 m² to 850,045 m² (85 ha, 210.05 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 17 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.

No zone of a development plan covers Blackford 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.

• 13 Jun 2023Conditional

  construct a new dwelling house, new effluent treatment system , new site entrance and all associated site works

  Permission, 2 homes · Laois County Council, 2360216

• 2 Mar 2023Conditional

  retain changes to dwelling house from that granted under planning ref. number 96/579 consisting of a) retention of the sun room as constructed to the east of the house and the storage shed beneath the sunroom and b) retention of velux window in the main roof and all associated site works

  Retention, 2 homes · Laois County Council, 2369

• 14 Jul 2022Conditional

  deforest lands comprising 8.86 hectares for the conversion to agricultural land

  Permission · Laois County Council, 22125

• 25 Feb 2020Conditional

  construct a dwelling, domestic garage, wastewater treatment system, percolation area, new bored well, new splayed entrance and associated site work

  Permission, 2 homes · Laois County Council, 2099

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 Blackford.

Recorded monuments

• LA014-044 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  This ringfort stands in the townland of Blackford (An tÁth Dubh) which was also known in medieval times as Ráth Mhadóg (The Ring-Fort of Madóg/Madawc/Madog/ Welsh surname) (www.logainm.ie). This ringfort is probably the Ráth Mhadóg which was an alternative townland to the present Blackford. In 1576 Robert Hartpole, constable of Carlow Castle was granted the manor of Blackford (LA014-045----) which included 'Rathmadocke alias the Blackeforde' (Nicholls 1994, 376). Situated in a late 19th or early 20th-century woodland, on the SW facing slope of a hill known locally as Dandy's Hill, with good extensive views of the surrounding countryside from E, S to W, limited views to N. Ringfort (LA014-043----) on N side of Bawn Hill in the townland of Monaferrick lies 560m to the N, Blackford Castle (LA014-045----) lies 990m to the SSE. The site of a quarry lies 20m to the N. Depicted as a circular enclosure on the 1838 edition of the OSi 6-inch map where it shown standing to the SE of a limekiln with small attached quarry. On the revised 1906 ed. OSi 6-inch map the ringfort is shown standing inside a small woodland that is annotated Dandy's Hill. Present remains consists of a circular shaped area (diam. 29m) enclosed by an earth and stone bank (top Wth 1.9m; int. H. 0.5m; ext. H 0.6-2m) and external fosse (base Wth 1m; ext. D 0.3m) with causewayed entrance gap (Wth 2.3m) at W. The interior of the ringfort follows the slope of the hill on which it is located sloping from NE to SW. The monument was included in the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) for County Laois issued in 1989 but was not included in the 1995 Record of Monuments and Places of County Laois (RMP) as the fieldworker mistakenly identified the nearby quarry as the site of the ringfort in 1990 and therefore concluded that the monument had been removed by the quarrying. The monument was delisted from the RMP Map and not included in the RMP which was published in 1995. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 14 April 2023

• LA014-045 Castle - tower house
  Description

  In undulating countryside. Marked on the 1563 map of Leix and Offaly (Hore 1863, f.p. 345). Erected as a defence against the Pale incursions by the O'Moores (O'Hanlon and O'Leary 1907, vol. 1, 223). In 1576 Robert Hartpole of Carlow was granted the ‘manor of the Blackeforde (LA014-045----), a castle in Monyferricke (LA014-100----), Rathmadocke alias the Blackeforde, the lands of Moniferick, Rathmadock alias the Blackeforde, Kilteighan, Garrans, Kilgessin, Ballekilkavan, Dromlin alias Killiclery, Inche alias Ballicowley, and Bavon an old castle in Colvanacre (LA008-015----) alias Colbanahore [Coolbanagher], the lands of Colvanacre alias Colbanahore, Ballarighan, Killgenne, Ballenebeg, Shanebeg, Ballemolrone, and Ballenestraghe, the lands of Shrowle [Shrule] (LA032-012001-), Ballyhormer, Ballecollin, Rathduf, Garribriken, Aghatenan, and Cappescribedor, in the lordship of Slemarge, a ruinous castle and lands in Clonrere [Clonreher] (LA013-019----) alias Merickeston, lands in Cultwerin, Killclonhoberd, Ballekillkaraghe, Knockandiere, Rathnemanaghe, and lands of Killehide, Ballehide, Garrenoe, Ballinecard, Farrinduf, Rossemore, and Ballim’Kegane, in the lordship of Slemarge, the lands of Ballirahen, Rossenalgan, Garroughe, Dormoile, and Capoile, or Cappahoile, in the same lordship; the advowson of the rectory of S. Fenton [Fintan], of Clowenenaghe [Clonenagh] (LA017-003001-), diocese of Leighlen, all in Queen’s co.. To hold for ever, by the service of a fouth part of a knight’s fee; rent £26 1s. 2d., Maintaining six English horsemen’ (Nicholls 1994, 376). Built of roughly coursed limestone, remains consist of E wall (L c. 7.4m) and portion of S wall (L c. 2.6m, wall T c. 1.8m), four storeys high. Featureless, except for slit ope in E wall. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: David Sweetman Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 16 November 2015

Architectural heritage

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

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 Blackford, about 1 in 5 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 low, low, partly inferred.

Terrain model

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_2266 (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 Blackford with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Laois.

Name

Blackford · An tÁth Dubh

Area

1,082,145 m² (108.21 ha, 267.4 acres)

Civil parish

Curraclone, and its townlands

Barony

Stradbally

Electoral division

Curraclone, the unit of the census

Census 2022

269 people lived in 85 households in the Curraclone electoral division. 93% of households owned their home. 31% of homes were built since 2001. 9% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 1% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Ballykilcavan, Bawn, Blackford (Co. Kildare), Brackney (Co. Kildare), Mill Land, Monaferrick, Park

Placenames

Blackford 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.