Kilnarath parish was the home for both the Ryans and Campbells, and according to church and civil records, lived in the Fiddane-Gortnaskehy town lands.  These town lands are relatively small - most considerably smaller than a square mile.   The area shaded in purple provides an idea as to where the Ryans and Campbells lived.

Click on Picture to Enlarge.   After the picture opens, look for the box with arrows on the bottom right of the picture.  Click on the arrows, and the picture will further enlarge.  If the arrows don't appear, move your cursor off the picture and then back onto the picture.  The arrows should appear.

Fiddane town land is center-right, and Gortnaskey barely appear on its eastern borders of this map.  Castlewaller is the large town land at the bottom of the page.  The tree lined roads that you see eventually lead to Castlewaller castle.  This is the castle that was confiscated from Tiege Ryan after Cromwell's conquest, and before the invasion his castle and the surrounding lands were known as Culley.  Even today the local people still refer to this area as "Cully" or "Culley".  Roughly translated it means "wilderness," and sounds like "sCool le". 

One of the things that puzzled us has been the location of "School Hill."  In the 1820s, we knew that there were only 7 schools in Kilnarath; however, none were in the general Gortnaskey area.  In fact, the only school depicted on this map, created in 1845, is in Drumbain town land, and its distance is over a mile from the road that connects Castlewaller and Gortnaskehy.  While we are still looking for "School Hill", there may be another explanation.  "School Hill" could be Culley or some Hill located near Culley.  We know that topological features were named after Culley, such as Culley Rocks ( extreme bottom right), and because there were no towns in the vicinity, the reference to Culley would make sense as it would be the most prominent thing around.

These are high quality maps, and contain significant detail of the landscape including houses, Esq. homes, trees, bogs, hospitable farm lands, roads, streams, mountains and other map items.

The map containing Kilnarath and Castlewaller is on this map's western borders.  Gortnaskehy, Glencroe and Bleanbeg are among the prominent town lands within Kilnarath on this map - the town lands north of the "green line" are located in another parish.  The topology of this land is noteworthy - the southern half of this map is predominantly bog and uninhabitable, and the land to the north are at the foothills of Keeper Mountain.  Keeper Mountain, is part of a mountain range that extends eastward, and is also the 7th largest mountain in Ireland.

Below are the original Griffiths Census information.  It shows assignment of land, buildings, etc. for the tenants within Kilnarath parish.  The original pages are provided as it also gives a good idea who were the Ryan and Campbell neighbors.  Interestingly, many of these names also fill the early census pages of Allamakee County in the late 19th century.

Griffiths Census for Fiddane and Castlewaller (1840-1855)

Fiddane Census 1

Fiddane Census 2

Castlewaller Census 1

Castlewaller Census 2

Castlewaller Census 3

Griffiths Census for Gortnaskehy and Knockcappul (1840-1855)

Gortnaskehy Census 1

Knockcappul Census (west of Bleanbeg)

The census information does not reference James Ryan living in the town land.  We believe the Griffiths' reference is found in Fiddane, and that he leased lands in Gortnaskehy which were part of the Ballyvowne Estates.  It does show a "Campbell", which most likely is related to our family.

These town lands are provided for several reasons, but mostly because some of the Ryan baptismal sponsors can be found west of Gortnaskehy.

Griffiths Census for Freagh

Freagh Census

Griffiths Census for the Gortshanes, Ahane

Gortshane Census 2

Gortshane Census 1

Ahane Census

Rockvale Census