Gortfad

11 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Gortfad, from 1,077 m² to 337,191 m² (33.72 ha, 83.32 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 24 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 Gortfad 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.

• 5 Jul 2024Conditional

  DEMOLITION OF AN EXISTING DERELICT TWO STOREY DWELLING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SHED TO INCLUDE ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2461030

• 4 Jun 2024N/a

  DEMOLITION OF AN EXISTING DERELICT TWO STOREY DWELLING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SHED, TO INCLUDE ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2460816

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 Gortfad.

Recorded monuments

• DG079-007 Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
  Description

  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
  Description

  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)

Architectural heritage

• Gortfad House, house, 1860–1920 · Regional interest
  Description

  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.

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 Gortfad, 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.

Terrain model

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_1868 (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 Gortfad with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Donegal.

Name

Gortfad

Area

1,057,670 m² (105.77 ha, 261.36 acres)

Civil parish

Donaghmore, and its townlands

Barony

Raphoe South

Electoral division

Castlefinn, the unit of the census

Census 2022

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.

Neighbouring townlands

Ardnaglass, Castlefinn, Corcullion, Gortin South, Legnabraid or Cunninghamstown, Stranamuck, Tawnacrom

Placenames

Gortfad 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.