We have looked at isthmuses in Pontoon, Curraun, and Cong previously; this week we are in Furnace, in Burrishoole, situated on a narrow neck of land between Lough Feeagh to the north and Furnace Lough to the south, just off the N59 to Mulranny, north of Newport.
This townland, a ‘companion piece’ to Furnace in Carra from two weeks ago, reveals a very different story. The original iron works here are long gone, and the salmon research centre, now under the auspices of the Irish Marine Institute, occupies the former site of the blast furnace that would have given the place its name.
The Newport facility comprises of a laboratory, administration block, meteorological station, freshwater hatchery, fish rearing facilities, fish census trapping stations, a salmonid angling fishery and a comprehensively monitored freshwater lake and river catchment. The fish trapping facilities have been in operation since 1958, with a full record of all fish movements upstream and downstream since 1970. They are known locally as the ‘Salmon Leap’ and the ‘Mill Race.’ As part of the Marine Institute Newport Strategy, a new 44,000 litre freshwater recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) was completed in 2019.
Professor Philip McGinnity, an expert in fish population biology and genetics, molecular ecology, and evolutionary biology gave me an insightful tour of the facility. Philip is interested in how his areas of research can be applied to achieving a greater understanding of the biology and ecology of salmonids, particularly Atlantic salmon, and brown trout. He is also researching how the knowledge acquired from his work can be used to resolve issues related to human impacts on these species and their constituent populations, previously considered intractable.
Ó Donnabháin proposed Furnéis as the Irish form of this townland in Bhuiríos Umhaill. There are two townlands called Furnace in Galway; Fornais is set as the Irish version of one of them. The original word is in the Irish-English dictionaries as ‘forge or furnace.’ Furnace or Bleankillew is in Leitrim, and Furnaceland is in Cavan. See also Ballybronoge / Baile na mBruthnóg (Thuaidh) ‘the town of the smelt-furnaces [north]’ in Limerick, from Ó Maolfabhail (1990).
In 1838, Furnace ‘Contain[ed] 242 acres, all uncultivated, except 2 acres. Old Col Browne had an iron mill here. There is a corn mill, a tuck mill, and the ruins of the furnace from which the townland takes its name.’ The northern shores of Lough Furnace, which is a mile and a half long and a mile wide, are in the south of the townland.
Pádraig Ó Móráin wrote this in 1957: “Furnace replaced the old name Cnoc an Iubhair, Knockanewer, the hill of the sage [sic].” This is based on a single reference to William Petty’s 1685 map of Mayo, and the connection is questionable. Lacranure, Leathacra an Yúir, ‘half-acre of the yew,’ is in Treanlaur, to the north of Furnace.
Sheriff killed
In his ‘Short Account of the History of Burrishoole Parish,’ Ó Móráin also refers to a very interesting place near the (salmon) Leap in Furnace, called Lag a’Bhrúnaigh, Browne’s Hollow, where John Browne (‘of the Neale’ and progenitor of the Brownes of Westport House), then Sheriff of Mayo, was killed by Richard Bourke on February 8, 1589. The tiny lake is named Lough Navroony in Lettermaghera South townland on the current Ordnance Survey maps. Leitir Machaire Theas is somewhat of an oxymoron, as a leitir is a ‘spewy wet hillside’ and machaire is a ‘field, plain, or flat, level ground.’ Browne had overnighted at Carrigahowley Castle the night before he met his death and was heading to Erris, via what we now call the Bangor Trail, then the only route to North Mayo.
In 1589, it was known as Bealach an Diothruibh, or the Desert Road. According to my O Dónaill Irish-English dictionary, the word díthreabh means an ‘uninhabited place, waste or wilderness.’ It can also be another word for díseart, a ‘desert, deserted place’ or a ‘retreat, hermitage.’ This translation is both apt and appealing, and it affirms the title of ‘Wild Nephin’ for the national park, as it is simultaneously both a wilderness and a sanctuary. Ó Móráin also mentions that the track passed through Shramore (sic) and Mám a’ Rata, Maumaratta, ‘the mountain pass of the young hare,’ and more notable nowadays for hoggets rather than hares! Significantly (this was in 1957) he concludes: ‘Even today most of the district is a desert.’ Sixty-seven years on ‘plus ça change,’ as the French would say!
Dr John O’Callaghan is a mountain walk leader who has organised and led expeditions both at home and abroad. He has served on the board of Mountaineering Ireland and is currently on the Irish Uplands Forum board.
TOWNLAND TALES: Forging history in Burrishoole's Furnace
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13.04.2024
We have looked at isthmuses in Pontoon, Curraun, and Cong previously; this week we are in Furnace, in Burrishoole, situated on a narrow neck of land between Lough Feeagh to the north and Furnace Lough to the south, just off the N59 to Mulranny, north of Newport.
This townland, a ‘companion piece’ to Furnace in Carra from two weeks ago, reveals a very different story. The original iron works here are long gone, and the salmon research centre, now under the auspices of the Irish Marine Institute, occupies the former site of the blast furnace that would have given the place its name.
The Newport facility comprises of a laboratory, administration block, meteorological station, freshwater hatchery, fish rearing facilities, fish census trapping stations, a salmonid angling fishery and a comprehensively monitored freshwater lake and river catchment. The fish trapping facilities have been in operation since 1958, with a full record of all fish movements upstream and downstream since 1970. They are known locally as the ‘Salmon Leap’ and the ‘Mill Race.’ As part of the Marine Institute Newport Strategy, a new 44,000 litre freshwater recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) was completed in........
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