Snugborough

Etymology

The older Irish name of the townland was ‘Kealloge’ which was an anglicisation of the Gaelic placename ‘Coill Og’, which means ‘"The New or Little Wood" and it is depicted with this name on the 1609 Ulster Plantation map. The townland formed part of the Manor of Calva which was granted to Walter Talbot in 1610 as part of the Plantation of Ulster. In 1724 the Calva estate was sold by the Gwyllym family to Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729). Mrs Montgomery was formerly Miss Elizabeth Percy of Snugborough House, County Wicklow, which was erected in 1695. When she died in December 1724, a few months after her husband bought the Ballyconnell estate, he renamed Kealloge as Snugborough in his wife’s honour.

Geography

It is bounded on the north by the international border with Fermanagh and Northern Ireland, on the east by Aughrim, Mucklagh & Gortoorlan townlands, on the south by Derryginny townland and on the west by Carrowmore, County Cavan townland. Its chief geographical features are some mountain streams, a pond on its boundary with Gortoorlan, forestry plantations and Slieve Rushen mountain, on whose southern slope it lies, reaching an altitude of over 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea-level.

The townland is traversed by the Bawnboy Road, Carrowmore Lane and Snugborough Lane.

Snugborough covers an area of 499 statute acres, including 7 acres (28,000 m²) of water.

History

The Hearth Money Rolls of 1664 list the occupiers of the townland as Patricke McConell, Murto Abraham, Owen McKernan, Knoghure McKeney and Edmund O’Reilly.

In the Irish Rebellion of 1798 Catholics attacked the Protestant soldiers returning from the Battle of Ballinamuck on 8 September 1798. The incident took place at Soldier's Bray, Snugborough.

The Tithe Applotment Books for 1827 list the following tithepayers in the townland- Kernan, Baxter, Hewit, Might, Moore, McGuire, O'Neil, Gerty, Friel, O'Brien, Conoly, McBryan, Banon, Seaton, Gilease, McGauran, Launders, Gibson, Reilly, Donahy, Shenan, Fitzpatrick.

The Ordnance Survey Name Books for 1836 give the following description of the townland- "Snugborough. This was formerly a part of Carramore. Property of Montgomery. Half is mountain and pasture. Gravelly soil. 3 forts in south. Poor inhabitants."

The 1841 Census of Ireland gives a population of 223 in Snugborough, of which 112 were males and 111 were females, with 37 houses.

The 1851 Census of Ireland gives a population of 200, a decrease of 23 on the 1841 figure, due to the intervening Irish Famine of 1845–47, of which 105 were males and 95 were females, with 34 houses, of which 1 was uninhabited. The decrease was larger in the female population.

Griffith's Valuation of 1857 lists the landlord of the townland as the Annesley Estate & the tenants as O’Neill, Brien, McBrien, Burns, Donohoe, Gilleese, Carberry, Freehill, Reilly, Geraghty, McGovern, Shanahan, McTaggart, Saunders, Seaton, Gwynne, Gibson, Barrett and Faris.

In the 1901 census of Ireland, there are twenty families listed in the townland.

In the 1911 census of Ireland, there are twenty-two families listed in the townland.

In the Dúchas School's Collection at http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5044800/5039799 a story by Mr J. McCabe in 1938 relates a fairytale that occurred in Snugborough. Another Snugborough fairytale in the same collection by Thomas O'Reilly, Church Street, Ballyconnell is also related at http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5044800/5039800. in the same collection at http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5083770/5039629 is a description of Snugborough in 1938 by Steven O'Brien.

Snugborough School

In the Dúchas Schools' Collection at http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5083770/5039685 is an account of Snugborough Hedge School of the 1800s.

Antiquities

The historic sites in the townland are Hillview House and three medieval ringforts in the southern end of Snugborough, (Site numbers 1111, 1112 & 1113, page 137, Snugborough townland, in “Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan”, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995). In the Dúchas School's Collection at http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5044800/5039820 a story by Mr J. Murray of Snugborough in 1938 relates to one of these forts.