Ranahinch

Area

612,386 m² (61.24 ha, 151.32 acres)

Buildings

No building touches it.

Zoning

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

Townland

Ranahinch

Planning applications on this parcel

No planning application touches this parcel 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 Protection Area: Lough Derravaragh SPA 004043
• Natural Heritage Area: Lough Derravaragh NHA 000684

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 3 recorded monuments.

• WM012-206 Chapel
  Description

  Chapel dedicated to St. Eyen, situated on SW facing slope of Knockeyon the summit of which lies 245m to the NNE and overlooks Lough Derravaragh 65m to the SW. Described in 1682 by Sir Henry Piers of Tristernagh as following; 'This hill hath on that side which hangeth over the water, and about midway from it to the top, an ancient chapel dedicated to a saint, called Eyen or Keyon. This chapel is cut out of the natural rock, for all one side of it appears to be the natural stone instead of a wall. It is now, and long hath been, without a roof: it hath in it a curious purling brook of crystal water (WM012-206001-), which issuing out of the rock side of the chapel, traverseth it, and falling thro' the opposite side wall, hasteneth down to the waters below. To this chapel from the land side leads a pathway on the side of the hill; the nearer you approach to it, the narrower doth the way grow; at last, and at a good distance from it, the way appeareth hewn out of the rock side, rendered easy and safe by the trees, which, as aforesaid, rise from the water, and range over one another, and hem up the way so close, that there is no danger either to slip or fall. To this chapel, on first Sunday in harvest, the natives pay their devotions in pilgrimages, which for certain stages they undertake barefoot; but when they come to a certain noted place in the way, they hold on the remainder of their devotion on their bare knees, all along to the chapel, on stone and gravel, intermixed and overgrown with heath and grass. Their devotions performed, they return merry and shod, no longer concerned for those sins that were the cause of this so severe a penance; but as if, having now paid off the old score, they longed to go on in the new again, they return in all haste to a green spot of ground on the east side of the hill towards the land, and here men and women fall a dancing and carousing the rest of the day; for ale sellers in great numbers on these days have their booths here as in a fair, and to be sure the merry bag-pipers fail not to pay their attendance' (Vallancey 1786, 12-14). In the late 19th century Reverend Cogan (1867, 440) recorded that 'Midway up the hill there is the shell of an old chapel, cut out of the rock, which was dedicated to St. Eyen or Keyon, one of the saints of the early period of our church. A holy well (WM012-206001-) is here, one much frequented. The people made pilgrimages to this place on the first Sunday of August, and performed a variety of penitential exercises. Stations were held here, and the neighbouring priests attended to hear confessions, and to prepare the pilgrims for the sacrament of the Eucharist'. Annotated as 'Chapel' on the OS maps this structure is situated within a dense woodland. Only the footings of this building remain (pers. comm. Aidan Walsh). Depicted on the 1911 ed. OS 25-inch map as a small rectangular building aligned on a NW-SE axis standing at the intersection point of four woodland pathways. Compiled by: Paul Walsh Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 6 December 2016

• WM012-206001 Ritual site - holy well
  Description

  Possible holy well located inside chapel (WM012-206---) dedicated to St. Eyen, situated on SW facing slope of Knockeyon the summit of which lies 245m to the NNE and overlooks Lough Derravaragh 65m to the SW. Described in 1682 by Sir Henry Piers of Tristernagh as following; 'This hill hath on that side which hangeth over the water, and about midway from it to the top, an ancient chapel dedicated to a saint, called Eyen or Keyon. This chapel is cut out of the natural rock, for all one side of it appears to be the natural stone instead of a wall. It is now, and long hath been, without a roof: it hath in it a curious purling brook of crystal water, which issuing out of the rock side of the chapel, traverseth it, and falling thro' the opposite side wall, hasteneth down to the waters below' (Vallancey 1786, 12-14). Pilgrimage to this chapel and well was described in 1682 as following; 'To this chapel, on first Sunday in harvest, the natives pay their devotions in pilgrimages, which for certain stages they undertake barefoot; but when they come to a certain noted place in the way, they hold on the remainder of their devotion on their bare knees, all along to the chapel, on stone and gravel, intermixed and overgrown with heath and grass. Their devotions performed, they return merry and shod, no longer concerned for those sins that were the cause of this so severe a penance; but as if, having now paid off the old score, they longed to go on in the new again, they return in all haste to a green spot of ground on the east side of the hill towards the land, and here men and women fall a dancing and carousing the rest of the day; for ale sellers in great numbers on these days have their booths here as in a fair, and to be sure the merry bag-pipers fail not to pay their attendance' (Vallancey 1786, 12-14). In the late 19th century Reverend Cogan (1867, 440) recorded that 'A holy well is here, one much frequented. The people made pilgrimages to this place on the first Sunday of August, and performed a variety of penitential exercises. Stations were held here, and the neighbouring priests attended to hear confessions, and to prepare the pilgrims for the sacrament of the Eucharist'. This well was known locally as 'Cabhra Well' and the following folklore about the well was recorded in the late1930s from Carley School in Crooked Wood which stated that on Knockeyon there was 'A "wishing" well on the alter stone of St Eyon's Chapel. This well was visited on 1st Sunday in August. This custom has ceased. Pins, hairpins, garters, coppers are left at the well' (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0738, Page 324). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 February 2017

• WM012-209 Quarry
  Description

  Quarry face located just 75m S of the summit of Knockeyon Hill (OD 710 ft / 215m) on S facing slope overlooking Lough Derravaragh from SSE-S-W-NW. The shoreline of Lough Derravaragh is 250m to the SW. Church (WM012-026----) dedicated to St. Eyon located 130m to SW. Exposed limestone and chert cliff face (L 75m NE-SW) running roughly NE-SW depicted on the 1911 ed. OS 25-inch map. This exposed semi-circular shaped cliff-faces (L 10m; D 0.3m) appear to be the site of a chert quarry possibly dating from the Mesolithic period (O'Sullivan et. al. 2007, 36-7; Little 2009, 130). The exposed rock face has been described as quarried feature which 'chase bands of festooned chert through the surrounding limestone and in some places disappear under the modern sloping ground surface. Immediately below these cut or quarried features there is a wide and extensive scree slope of chert stretching down into the oak and hazel woods of the hill' (ibid., 37). This 'festoon' chert is different from the usual black glassy or very fine-grained chert and can be identified from its characteristic feature of thin dark lines in loops and rings through the dark brown chert. In 2006 a site visit by Aimee Little and Dr. Matthew Parkes of the Natural History Museum of Ireland discovered several pieces of chert amongst the scree at the base of the outcrop which showed signs of secondary working suggesting that they were late Mesolithic in date; pick like forms were also identified amongst the scree (ibid.). Dr Parkes identified several areas on the face of the chert outcrop which appear to have been quarried, as there was no natural explanation for the type of bed recession visible (ibid., 37-8). It has been suggested that the festooned chert Mesolithic tools excavated at Clonava Island (WM006-065----) located 8.6km to the NW may have been quarried from Knockeyon Hill (ibid., 38-9; Little 2014, 2). The late Mesolithic wetland site at Corralanna (WM002-035----) is 12.5km to the NNW. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 16 February 2017

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. 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).

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Registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. 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.