Drumlane

44 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Drumlane, from 13 m² to 255,491 m² (25.55 ha, 63.13 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 12 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 Drumlane 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.

• 22 May 2026Conditional

  for PERMISSION to construct 6 bay agricultural slatted shed with underground tank, provide concrete apron and associated site works together with RETENTION Permission for existing entrance and laneway at Drumlane, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan. A Natura impact statement will be submitted to the planning authority with the application

  Permission · Cavan County Council, 2660280

• 3 Jul 2024Refused

  to construct agricultural storage shed, concrete apron and associated site works together with Retention Permission for existing entrance and laneway

  Permission · Cavan County Council, 2460301

• 1 Mar 2023Conditional

  erection of a part two storey / part single storey dwelling, new site entrance, wastewater treatment system, percolation area and all ancillary site works, further information and revised plans including a revised/updated NIS have been submitted

  Permission, 1 home · Cavan County Council, 2376

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: Lough Oughter and Associated Loughs SAC 000007
• Special Protection Area: Lough Oughter SPA 004049
• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: Lough Oughter And Associated Loughs 000007

Recorded monuments

• CV014-028001 Field system
  Description

  Situated on the S-facing slope of a broad N-S spur with the northern end of Derrybrick Lough visible to the SE and the northern end of Drumlane Lough visible to the SW, both of which are at the NW edge of the Lough Oughter complex of lakes. The field system consists of rectangular fields (dims c. 30m x c. 30m) defined by broad earthen banks (Wth c. 3m; H c. 0.1-0.2m) or scarps and cover the area of the ecclesiastical enclosure and the ecclesiastical building (CV014-028005-) S of it, amounting to about 20 acres (c. 8 ha). A section of a road (L 30m; Wth 8.6m) defined by earthen banks (Wth 2.5-4.4m; H 0.1-0.2m) at N and S runs E-W through the fields and other roads could be present. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 27 July 2018

• CV014-028002 Round tower
  Description

  The round tower stands close to the NW angle of the present church (CV014-028003-) and pre-dates it. Its lower courses (ext. diam. 5.1m; H c. 6.7m) are well-set but the top (total surviving H 11.6m) was re-built with a cruder finish (Barrow 1979, 56). The round-headed doorway that has a raised architrave is at the first floor facing SE, and the only surviving window is round-headed and re-set in the upper part of the wall over the doorway (O’Keeffe 2004, 143). The floors were supported on off-sets (Barrow 1979, 56-7). Two stones on the lower part of the round tower (H c. 2.2m over ground), facing E and N, have images in relief of a hen and a cock both facing left, which is not fully understood and rarely represented in Ireland (McCabe 2017). The architrave around the doorway could date the tower to the eleventh century. This is a National Monument in state care (No. 4). See the attached image of the doorway The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 27 July 2018 Kirk, C. 2022 The Church and Priory at Drumlane. The Spark: border counties local history review, 34, 38-40.

• CV014-028003 Religious house - Augustinian canons
  Description

  Situated on the S-facing slope of a broad N-S spur with the northern end of Derrybrick Lough visible to the SE and the northern end of Drumlane Lough visible to the SW, both of which are at the NW edge of the Lough Oughter complex of lakes. The original founder of the early monastery at Drumlane is not known with certainty. St Maodhóg or Mogue, also known as Aidan, who founded a monastery at Ferns (WX015-003002-) and is the patron saint of that diocese, is associated with Drumlane in a late, probably 16th century life, where he is said to have been educated in the company of St. Molaise of Devenish, in Lough Erne (Ó Riain 2011, 432-6). This elaboration is the result of Augustinian pretentions but it obscures the history of the early monastery, which St. Maodhóg is generally credited with founding. St Maodhóg’s relics were kept at Drumlane, and the house-shaped reliquary known as the Breac Maodhóg, dating from the 11th or 12the century and now in NMI, was kept there (Henry 1970, 117-19; Murray 2014). Erenachs, or descendants of the founder, are mentioned in 1025 (AU) and 1059 when Conaing Ua Faircheallaigh, erenach of Drumlane, was also described as the successor of Maodhóg in Leinster and Connaught (AFM). The monastery was re-established as an Augustinian house in 1143-8, probably by St. Malachy or at his suggestion, and it became known as the priory of St Mary, which was under St Mary’s of Kells (ME017-044039-) although it was not listed as a possession of Kells at the Suppression c. 1540 (White 1943, 262-4). There was a fire in 1246 and the present structure may have been built after that catastrophe (Kirk 2022, 40). Indulgences were offered in 1431 and 1436 to raise funds for a cloister, refectory and other buildings which were probably never built, but the money raised probably built much of the present church. Lay coarbs of the O’Farrelly family continued into the 15th century. After the Suppression Drumlane and its possessions was granted to Hugh O’Reilly of the Brenie (Breifne) in 1570 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 170), and to members of the Dillon family in 1586 (Davies 1948, 94). The church could have continued in use for Protestant worship until a new church was built in 1819 at Killynaher, c. 3.7km to the N (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 517), since Grose (1791, vol. 2, 63) shows the church at Drumlane as still roofed. The only evidence of the early church is the round tower (CV014-028002-) and the remnants of an ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 220m N-S; c. 200m E-W) in the fields around the church and graveyard. At N the enclosure is bounded by a grass-covered earthen bank (Wth 4m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.6m) and outer fosse (Wth 4m; D 0.3m) that forms the N side of a triangular relict field situated between the car-park and a new graveyard. The boundary is continued by a low earthen bank in the field to the E, and it turns S where it meets the public road and runs past the E edge of the graveyard as a scarp. South of the graveyard it turns W and enters a confused area dominated by elements of a rectangular field system that is probably late medieval or post-medieval in date. Further W the perimeter of the ecclesiastical enclosure turns N and can be traced as the vegetation mark of a fosse that almost connects with the N boundary of the triangular field. The field system consists of rectangular fields (dims c. 30m x c. 30m) defined by broad earthen banks (Wth c. 3m; H c. 0.1-0.2m) or scarps and cover the area of the ecclesiastical enclosure and the ecclesiastical building S of it amounting to about 20 acres (c. 8ha). A section of a road (L 30m; Wth 8.6m) defined by earthen banks (Wth 2.5-4.4m; H 0.1-0.2m) at N and S runs E-W through the fields and other roads could be present. The round tower stands close to the NW angle of the present church and pre-dates it. Its lower courses (ext. diam. 5.1m; H c. 6.7m) are well-set but the top (total surviving H 11.6m) was re-built with a cruder finish (Barrow 1979, 56). The round-headed doorway that has a raised architrave is at the first floor facing SE, and the only surviving window is round-headed and re-set in the upper part of the wall over the doorway (O’Keefe 2004, 143). The floors were supported on off-sets (Barrow 1979, 56-7). Two stones on the lower part of the round tower (H c. 2.2m over ground), facing E and N, have images in relief of a hen and a cock both facing left, which is not fully understood and rarely represented in Ireland (McCabe 2017). The architrave around the doorway could date the tower to the eleventh century. The church (int. dims 32.8m E-W; 7.55m N- S) survives almost complete with coursed limestone walls (T 1-1.1m; H c. 6m), but the W wall only survives (H c. 2.5m) to half its original height. There are numerous external buttresses, particularly at the W end, and the E wall has a base-batter beneath a robbed window that was probably a three-light decorated form and has a drip moulding decorated with three heads. Both the N and S doorways in the nave are pointed and led to external rooms as the door rebates are on the outside, although it is possible that such structures were planned but not built. Just E of the N doorway a rectangular two-light cusped ogee-headed window at an upper level indicates a rood-loft, and an internal wall footing just to the E creates a chancel (int. dim. c. 6.75m E-W) to the E and a nave (int. dim. c. 10.65m E-W) to the W, with three closely-spaced pointed windows in the S wall of the nave. The W window is re-built, but the central and E windows have two lights in pointed frames and have external drip mouldings. The chancel has two robbed tomb niches internally on the S wall, both with large triangular pediments that have been removed apart from one decorated crocket. The E window on the S wall is a rectangular insertion with one or two lights and an external hood moulding that was probably square but is now largely missing. At the W end of the nave the round-headed doorway with dog-tooth decoration and no rebate for a door suggests that the W wall at least may have been built early in the thirteenth century, but most of the church’s features date to the fifteenth century, as would most of the thirty or so architectural fragments that are present. (Davies 1948, 83-94) This is a National Monument in state care (No. 4). See the attached aerial view from SW _1 The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 July 2018 Murray, G. 2014 The Breac Maodhóg: a unique Irish reliquary. In Scott, B. & W. Nolan (eds) Cavan: History and Society, 1-41. Dublin, Geography Publications Kirk, C. 2022 The Church and Priory at Drumlane. The Spark: border counties local history review, 34, 38-40.

• CV014-028004 Ecclesiastical enclosure
  Description

  Situated on the S-facing slope of a broad N-S spur with the northern end of Derrybrick Lough visible to the SE and the northern end of Drumlane Lough visible to the SW, both of which are at the NW edge of the Lough Oughter complex of lakes. The only evidence of the early church is the round tower (CV014-028002-) and the remnants of an ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 220m N-S; c. 200m E-W) in the fields around the church (CV014-028003-) and graveyard (CV014-028009-). At N the enclosure is bounded by a grass-covered earthen bank (Wth 4m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.6m) and outer fosse (Wth 4m; D 0.3m) that forms the N side of a triangular relict field situated between the car-park and a new graveyard. The boundary is continued by a low earthen bank in the field to the E, and it turns S where it meets the public road and runs past the E edge of the graveyard as a scarp. South of the graveyard it turns W and enters a confused area dominated by elements of a rectangular field system (CV014-028001-) that is probably late medieval or post-medieval in date. Further W the perimeter of the ecclesiastical enclosure turns N and can be traced as the vegetation mark of a fosse that almost connects with the N boundary of the triangular field. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 27 July 2018

• CV014-028005 Ecclesiastical residence
  Description

  Situated on a shelf towards the bottom of a N-facing slope, and c. 150m S of the Augustinian church (CV014-028003-) is a building described as an ‘Abbey (in Ruins)’ on the 1835 (L-shaped) and the 1908 (rectangular) editions of the OS 6-inch map, with earthworks depicting hollow ways of the field system (CV014-028001-) in the vicinity on the latter. Just a portion (L 6m plus; T 0.9m; H 4m) of the S wall of the building survives with a single corbel high on its inner face. The outline (int. dims 16.5m N-S; 8m E-W) extends N as wall footings. This could have been the abbot’s house or a guest house. It might even have been the ‘anchorite’s cell’ that was under construction in 1484 when the annals record the deaths of John O’Farelly and Brian O’Farrelly, priests of Drumlane (AFM). In 1970 human remains, described as a (CV014-028010-) were found in the vicinity of this building but they were not excavated (Cahill and Sikora 2011, ii, 305-6). In 2021 a community group received funding to conduct a topographical and geophysical survey of a large area (dims c. 140m NW-SE; c. 70m NE-SW) of the field surrounding this building. A gradiometer survey revealed that the area is divided into small plots (dims c. 25m E-W; c 25m N-S) defined by negative features that can be interpreted as ditches. They are laid out N-S and are not aligned on the current field boundaries. A resistivity survey in the area of the building records another rectangular area (dims c. 25m x c. 25m) but further walls from the structure itself have not been identified. (Kirk 2022a) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 July 2018 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 5/1971). Kirk, C. 2022a Our Drumlane Research Journey. The Spark: border counties local history review, 34, 41-2.

• CV014-028006 Cross-inscribed stone
  Description

  Built into the N pier of the gate to the graveyard (CV014-028009-). It is described (O’Donvan 1995, 197) as ‘Fragment of a cross-inscribed stone (dims 0.32m x 0.27m; Wth 0.15m) decorated with a small cross (0.18m x 0.17m across arms) with expanded terminals, incorporated into masonry of N gate-pier at entrance to graveyard. Top right and bottom left corners of stone have been shattered.’ It is not evident in 2018. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 July 2018

• CV014-028007 Graveslab
  Description

  A trapezoidal graveslab (H c. 2m) with an elaborate floriated cross but no inscription is now inside the N wall of the church, although it was originally on the ground outside the N wall. It is locally attributed to the Farrelly family, erenachs of Drumlane. It is the only medieval memorial within a rectangular graveyard (CV014-028009-). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 27 July, 2018

• CV014-028008 Architectural fragment
  Description

  There were over thirty pieces of decorated stone in the old graveyard (CV014-028009-) that are now stored within the church. They are largely pieces from decorated fifteenth century windows but a few may relate to an earlier church (Davies 1948, 91-3). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 27 July 2018

• CV014-028009 Graveyard
  Description

  Situated on the S-facing slope of a broad N-S spur with the northern end of Derrybrick Lough visible to the SE and the northern end of Drumlane Lough visible to the SW, both of which are at the NW edge of the Lough Oughter complex of lakes. The church (CV014-028003-) and round tower (CV014-028002-) are within a rectangular graveyard (dims c. 50m N-S; c. 47m E-W) defined by masonry walls with headstones dating from c. 1750. There is a record of a cross-inscribed stone (CV014-028006-) in the N pier of the entrance gate. The graveyard has been extended to the N and a new graveyard has been built N of the carpark since 2005 (OSAP). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 27 July 2018

• CV014-028010 Burial
  Description

  The remains were found in the field in which the abbey is situated, approximately 180m south of the church and round tower of Drumlane. The following is recorded by Cahill and Sikora (2011, ii, 305-6): ‘In late December 1970 human remains were discovered during bulldozing operations near the ecclesiastical site of Drumlane, Co. Cavan. The site was on an out-farm of a landowner, living some 5km away, who was levelling parts of the monastic site for reclamation purposes. During this work a row of human skulls had come to light, and operations were suspended. Some of the human remains were removed for examination by a local doctor and the remainder were left in situ. The site was reported to the Garda Síochána, who informed the NMI. An investigation was carried out by Michael Ryan on 1 January 1971, but the site was not excavated. . . . In the absence of any associated finds or other evidence it is not possible to suggest a date for these burials. Although they were found close to a monastic site and later abbey, there is insufficient evidence to associate them with either of these phases of use at the site. The likelihood remains, however, that there is a connection to the church. The human remains were not retained.’ Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 20 January 2015

• CV014-029 Crannog
  Description

  Not marked on OS 1836 or 1876 eds. Small subrectangular island (dims. c. 22m NNW-SSE; c. 15m WNW-ESE) in Drumlane Lough, c. 50m from the shoreline. Davies (NMI Survey 1942) recorded a row of piles around the edge of the island and some large horizontal logs near its centre. He also noted several stones and a few animal bones on the island. Mil-ligan (1885, 149-50) recorded a very fine iron cauldron found here by a farmer the previous summer 'when cutting turf about two and a-half feet below the surface of bog, which was formerly the bottom of the lake'. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 December 2008

• CV014-030 Crannog
  Description

  The Archaeological Survey of Ireland (ASI) is in the process of providing information on all monuments on The Historic Environment Viewer (HEV). Currently the information for this record has not been uploaded. To access available information for research purposes please make an appointment in advance with the Archive Unit (open Fridays 10.00 am – 5.00 pm), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, The Custom House, Dublin 1 D01W6XO or email NMarchive@housing.gov.ie.

Architectural heritage

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

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 Drumlane, about 1 in 20 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 low, partly inferred. Parts of the land are water.

Terrain model

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

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 Drumlane with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Cavan.

Name

Drumlane · Droim Leathan

Area

859,491 m² (85.95 ha, 212.38 acres)

Civil parish

Drumlane, and its townlands

Barony

Loughtee Lower

Electoral division

Milltown, the unit of the census

Census 2022

404 people lived in 148 households in the Milltown electoral division. 87% of households owned their home. 34% of homes were built since 2001. 13% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 4% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Artonagh, Derrybrick, Derryvehil, Drumgesh, Drummany Glebe, Milltown, Money

Placenames

Drumlane 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.