Over 17,000 links added to library website

We’ve recently added over 17,000 (yes seventeen thousand) links to the website. There are now links from each of the townland and monuments pages to the new MapBrowser maps system. There are of course reciprocal links from the maps to the townlands and monuments.

The best way to get to a townland page is to go the library homepage at www.clarelibrary.ie and click on the ‘Places and Placenames’ link. Then click on the ‘Townlands’ link . This brings you to an alphabetical index to the townlands of County Clare with the Parishes, District Electoral Divisions' names and numbers, Registrars' Districts and Poor Law Unions in which they are situated. It is based on, and uses the spellings of, the 1901 census. The townland is the smallest territorial division within each county and can range in size between one and several thousand acres. They have been used extensively in land surveys, censuses and polling systems since the 17th century and are the basis for rural postal addresses. Navigate to a townland. If, for example you were looking for Teeskagh, click on the section ‘Lack to Woodpark’ and then scroll down and click on the link to Teeskagh to arrive at the page dedicated to this townland. On this page you will see a link to “On 1842 Ordnance Survey Map (via MapBrowser)” – click on this to get to the MapBrowser version of the Ordnance Survey maps centring on Teeskagh townland.

For monuments, on the library homepage click on the link to ‘Archaeology’ and select a monument type from the list on the left. As an example, select ‘Tower Houses’. Between the 15th and 17th centuries the custom of building castles gave way to the building of structures whose main function was as a residence, rather than a solely defensive site. These buildings were called tower houses. There are c.80 tower houses surviving in County Clare, many of them in a very good state of preservation. Click on the link to ‘Carrigaholt Castle’ and this will bring you to a page dedicated to this monument. On this page you will see a link to “On 1842 Ordnance Survey Map (via MapBrowser)” – click on this to get to the MapBrowser version of the Ordnance Survey maps centring on Carrigaholt Castle.