Moherloob

Geography

Moherloob is bounded on the north by Gortmore and Moherreagh townlands, on the west by Gortullaghan townland and on the south and east by Mullaghlea townland. Its chief geographical features are a stream, forestry plantations and dug wells.

Moherloob is traversed by minor roads and rural lanes.

The townland covers 111 statute acres.

History

The 1665 Down Survey map depicts it as Maghaloroby.

In the Plantation of Ulster by grant dated 24 February 1614, King James VI and I granted, inter alia, one pole of Monenoure and Mogherlooby to Phelim McHugh O'Reyly, Bryan McHugh O'Reyly and Cahir McHugh O'Reyly, the sons of Hugh Reyly, late of Ballaghaneo, County Cavan. Ballaghaneo is now the townland of Ballaghanea in Lurgan Parish, County Cavan, on the shores of Lough Ramor, so the O'Reillys were removed a long way from their home by the Plantation. Hugh Reyly was the great-grandnephew of the chief of the O'Reilly clan, Eoghan na Fésóige mac Seoain, who ruled from 1418–1449. The O’Reilly lands in Moherloob were confiscated in the Cromwellian Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and were distributed as follows-

In the Hearth Money Rolls of 1662 there was nobody paying the Hearth Tax in Moherloob.

In the 1825 Registry of Freeholders for County Cavan there were four freeholders registered in Moherloob- Hugh Donnelly, Terence Farry, Michael Golrake and Farrell King. They were all Forty-shilling freeholders holding a lease for lives from their landlord Mr. Magrath.[4]

The Tithe Applotment Books for 1827 list five tithepayers in the townland.

Griffith's Valuation of 1857 lists five landholders in the townland.

In the 1901 census of Ireland, there are five families listed in the townland, and in the 1911 census of Ireland, there are only four families listed in the townland.

Antiquities

The chief structures of historical interest in the townland are

1. Two earthen ringforts.
2. Stepping stones across the stream