Tóin an tSeanbhaile
Tóin an tSeanbhaile
Village
Tóin an tSeanbhaile is located in Ireland
Tóin an tSeanbhaile
Tóin an tSeanbhaile
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 54°00′44″N 9°58′02″W / 54.01233°N 9.96730°W / 54.01233; -9.96730
CountryIreland
ProvinceConnacht
CountyCounty Mayo
Elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid ReferenceL709089

Tóin an tSeanbhaile (Traditionally: Tóin a'tSean-bhaile,[1] colloquial English: the Valley/Tonatanvally)[2] is a small village located on the north east point of Achill Island, Ireland. It lies within the Mayo Gaeltacht.

Geography

Sliabh Mór from Tóin an tSeanbhaile village

Tóin an tSeanbhaile is one of the flattest places on Achill Island,[3] a shallow plain encircled by low hills[4] which is bordered mostly by the sea, with Ridge Point to the north, and Sruhill Lough to the south. To the southeast lies the village of Dún Ibhir (Dooniver), to the west lies Dúmha Goirt (Dugort) and to the south lies Bun an Churraigh (Bunacurry).[5]

The bedrock of the area consists mainly of Schist and Gneiss, with lowland blanket bog to the south,[6] and machair and rocky seashore to the north and west. The area has a number of lakes, Lough Gall (Loch Geall, 'the bright lake'), Loch na mBreac ('the lake of the trout'), Lough Doo (Loch Dubh, 'the black lake') and Sruhill Lough ('a tidal lake').[7] These lakes have healthy stocks of brown trout,[8] some sea trout, and Lough Gall is also artificially stocked with rainbow trout.

A machair exists near Lough Doo, which has been designated a Special Area of Conservation by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, under the European Habitats Directive. The site itself is of international importance in the conservation of mosses and liverworts,[9] with some scarce and rare species, Catoscopium nigritum and Fossombronia incurva, and is in fact the only location in Ireland that the liverwort Leiocolea gillmannii has been recorded at.[10]

Much of the southern townland was designated a Natural Heritage Area by Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, in 2007 due to its importance as a hyperoceanic blanket bog habitat.[11][12]

History

Tóin an tSeanbhaile is one of the oldest settlements on Achill island, as evidenced by its name (Tóin an tSeanbhaile 'the end of the old village'), with a number of prehistoric archaeological sites, including a Cairn to the south of the village near Bun an Churraigh, a Midden, Ringfort and Enclosure on Caraun Point (where the first settlement existed), a Crannóg near the centre of the modern village.[13]

A cillín, a burial ground for the unbaptised, mainly children, is also found on Caraun point,[14] and which gives it its Irish name Rinn na Leanbh.[15]

The Valley House as it currently stands. Visible at the top of the gable is the plaque showing the year of construction (AD1902).

John Goodacre sold the 1,900 acres (7.7 km2) of land around Tóin an tSeanbhaile which had been bought by his father,[16] Frederick Lambart, 8th Earl of Cavan in the early 1870s.[17] Lambart built a hunting lodge on this land. In 1888, his wife (Caroline, the Countess of Cavan) sold the land to Mrs Agnes MacDonnell.[18] Mrs MacDonnell and the estate became national and international news in October 1894,[19][20] when Mrs MacDonnell was savagely attacked by her employee James Lynchehaun (c. 1864–1937) and left for dead after he set fire to her home at Valley House. His arrests and subsequent escapes[21] were reported in the media, and became part of the popular culture of the era, with references to the attack in J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World[22] and James Joyce's Ulysses (1922).[23]

The house was subsequently rebuilt by MacDonnell (who died in 1923, forced to wear a veil when in public due to her facial disfigurement) and completed in 1902. The estate was purchased from the MacDonnell family by the Gallagher family in 1942.[24] It currently operates as a bar and hostel. In later years, the story of Mrs MacDonnell and Lynchehaun became the subject of fiction, with a book, The Playboy and the Yellow Lady, was published in 1986.[25] The Veiled Woman of Achill published in 2012 [26] A 1998 film, Love and Rage, starring Daniel Craig as Lynchehaun, and Greta Scacchi as Agnes MacDonnell, was made.[27]

The 1911 census showed a population of 253,[28] which has declined today to an estimated population of 113.

Census data for Tóin an tSeanbhaile, 1841–1911[29]
Year 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Number of Houses 21 22 74 81 84 55 43 46
Population 115 96 334 381 413 274 232 253

Wildlife

Tóin an tSeanbhaile has a broad diversity of wildlife. Marine mammals (whales, porpoises) and basking shark are commonly sighted off Ridge point,[30][31] and the area is well known for its diversity of mosses and liverworts. Common birdsfoot trefoil, ladys bedstraw, various small sedges and sand sedge are found on the Machair near Loch Dubh, and Loch na mBreac has a good growth of common reed, branched bur-reed and bulrush.

Birds commonly sighted on the shore include cormorants, shags, snipe, lapwing, oystercatcher, common tern, Arctic tern, Sandwich tern, common gull, kittiwake, black-headed gull, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull.[32] Further inshore, species commonly sighted include whooper swan, wigeon, teal, mallard, coot, lapwing, curlew, little grebe, grey heron, red-breasted merganser and light-bellied brent goose.[33] From time to time the rare corn crake has nested inland also.[34]

The blanket bog to the south has a large biodiversity of flora, including black bog-rush, purple moor-grass, cross-leaved heath, ling heather, white beak-sedge, common cottongrass, deergrass, round-leaved sundew, lousewort, bog mosses (Sphagnum spp.), lichens (Cladonia spp.), Racomitrium lanuginosum, liverwort Pleurozia purpurea is also present. There are hollows colonised by bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) and moss Campylopus atrovirens and the bog moss Sphagnum contortum also occurs.[6] A report on the area by the National Parks and Wildlife service further details

The lake in the south-east corner of the site supports pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum), bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) and bulbous rush (Juncus bulbosus) and a marginal flush that is extensive in parts. The flush contains bog mosses Sphagnum recurvum and S. cuspidatum, carnation sedge (Carex panicea), marsh pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), oblong-leaved sundew (Drosera intermedia), yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus) and many-stalked spike-rush (Eleocharis multicaulis). The slopes of the low-rising hills to the west of the site support a mosaic of blanket bog and dry heath. Species noted include ling heather, devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis), hard fern (Blechnum spicant) and the lichens Cladonia uncialis and C. portentosa.

— National Parks and Wildlife service, Site Synopsis of the Natural Heritage Area Doogort East bog[6]

Amenities

Although a small village, Tóin an tSeanbhaile has a number of amenities, including a primary school (S.N Thóin a'tSeanbhaile, built 1914),[35] soccer pitch (Fr. O'Brien Park, home ground of Achill Rovers,[36] a Roman Catholic church, a pier and blue flag beaches,[32] a pitch and putt course,[37] as well as a bar and hostel. The village has one postbox, one bus stop and is served by the Bus Éireann 440 once a day in each direction.

References

  1. ↑ Irish Placenames Database, archival data Archived 23 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ The Placenames Act (Gaeltacht areas), 2007, #248, coimisineir.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Ordnance Survey Ireland Archived 29 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ National Parks and Wildlife service, Site Synopsis of the Natural Heritage Area Doogort East bog Archived 19 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Ordnance Survey Map, detailing townlands Archived 29 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  6. 1 2 3 National Parks and Wildlife service, Site Synopsis of the Natural Heritage Area Doogort East bog Archived 19 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Irish Placenames Commission, logainm.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  8. ↑ "Fishing and angling on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland". achilltourism.com. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Mayo County Council Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ National Park and Wildlife Service report, npws.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  11. ↑ "S.I. No. 516/2007 - Natural Heritage Area (Doogort East Bog NHA 002381) Order 2007". irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ↑ Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, archaeology.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "Excavations.ie. Searchable database of Irish excavation reports". Archived from the original on 20 November 2007. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  15. ↑ Caraun point, logainm.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  16. ↑ "Estate Record: Goodacre". landedestates.ie. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  17. ↑ "Estate Record: Lambart". landedestates.ie. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  18. ↑ NUI Galway, CONNACHT LANDED ESTATES PROJECT Archived 4 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ↑ New York Times coverage of attack on Mrs MacDonnell. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  20. ↑ "The Achill Island Assault", irishtimes.com. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  21. ↑ Byrne, Patricia (5 January 1895). "Today In Irish History – Caught! Fugitive Criminal Lynchehaun Arrested". Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  22. ↑ The Irish Review (1986-), No. 4 (Spring, 1988), pp. 136-139, jstor.org. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  23. ↑ Tim Robinson's introduction to JM Synge's Th Aran Islands. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  24. ↑ "History of The Valley House". valley-house.com. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  25. ↑ The Playboy and the Yellow Lady, openlibrary.org. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  26. ↑ Byrne, Patricia (2012). The Veiled Woman of Achill - Island Outrage and A Playboy Drama. Ireland: The Collins Press. ISBN 9781848891-470.
  27. ↑ "Love & Rage (2000)". imdb.com. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  28. ↑ Census Data for the townland from the 1911 national census, census.nationalarchives.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  29. ↑ Census Data for the townland, Mayo County Library, mayolibrary.ie. Accessed 29 September 2022.
  30. ↑ "Irish Whale and Dolphin Group". iwdg.ie. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  31. ↑ Irish Whale and Dolphin Group sightings Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  32. 1 2 "Mayo County Council - County Mayo, Ireland -- Golden Strand". mayococo.ie. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  33. ↑ "BirdWatch Mayo". birdwatchmayo.org. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  34. ↑ "Western People - 2001/09/20: Corncrake recovery in the West". Archived from the original on 12 June 2003.
  35. ↑ "thevalleyns.com: The Leading The Valley Ns Site on the Net". Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  36. ↑ "Fr O'Brien - Honorary President Achill Rovers Football Club - Fr Vincent O'Brien Achill Island Co Mayo". achillrovers.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  37. ↑ "Visit Achill - Golf on Achill, Co Mayo, Ireland". visitachill.com. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
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