I have been trying to locate a place in the parish of Donagh without luck so far. The place was called Ballibranigan in the early 1600s but at some point became known as Moneyshandoney which is part of the townland of Churchland Quarters. In 1609 my family was listed as having this land assigned to them as the eranaghs of Donagh. I'm curious about it s exact location.
According to the seanruad site, Churchland Quarters is in Co Donegal and consists of 5187 acres in Donagh parish. Like quite a few places in Ireland it has alternative names, such as Carrowtemple, Moneyshandoney & Carrick. You can see where it is by using Griffiths Valuation maps or on this website;
https://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=Churchland+Quarters&str=on
It’s around the town of Carndonagh. In the 1901 census it had a population of 705, in 154 households:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Carndonagh/Church_land_quarters/
I don’t see Ballibranigan on Griffiths maps, as any part of Churchland Quarters. Over the years many townland names and sub-divisions of townlands fell into disuse. Perhaps someone with local knowledge may be able to help but if Ballibranigan’s not been in use for several hundred years, it may be hard to locate. (Few detailed local maps exist prior to the OS maps in the 1820s).
Hello. Thank you for looking into this. Someone on another site suggested that this place is now known as Priesttown which is just a couple of miles north of Carndonagh and is part of Churchland Quarters. It s also where John Colgan was born in the 1500s.
I can see Priest Town just north of Carndonagh, near the modern Moss Rd. It’s a sub-townland within Churchland Quarters. But no sign of a Ballibranigan (or similar) on the Griffiths maps. No sign on this site either:
Hello. I have searched historical maps from the 1830s on Geohive and even those don't show that placename. I was hoping that the Down Survey maps would be helpful but they don't really show much detail regarding Inishowen.
Hello again. I just found a version of the Down Survey map for Inishowen that I had never seen before. This one shows the location (though without precision) of Ballibranigan.