Drumgoose

Drumgose is a townland of 164 statute acres 3 roods and 3 perches (including 83 acres 3 roods and 1 perch of water in Lough Ross). It lies about 3 miles north west of Crossmaglen about two miles north of Culloville. It is bounded on the north by Clarbane, on the east Tullyard, on the south by Lough Ross and on the east by County Monaghan. The townland does not appear in the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 and may have been incorporated in one of the other townlands.

Name of townland

Druim-Guasach, "The dangerous ridge" ⁽¹⁾.

There are three townlands called 'Drumgose' in Ireland; two in County Armagh and one in Tyrone.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

DRUMGOSE (OSNB ii 31): This is a small townland on the northern edge of Lough Ross, part of which belongs to it, as well as a small island on the lake. There is only 3 or 4 indifferent dwellings in the Td. It is under tillage in farms. The soil light. There is an old Fort in this td.
It contains 166..1..19 of which 85..1..17 is water.

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£39.67	£47.75	£48.50	£48.45	£48.45	£49.10	£49.60	£49.60	£48.50	£51.00	£51.00	£52.50	£55.25

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no such houses in the townland.

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land as James McWatty.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 17 people in 5 families.

Native Irish Speakers There was one native Irish speaker; Susan McCabe, farmer, widow, aged 60.

Population Decline

The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	7	6	3	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	2
People	43	29	15	25	21	20	17	13	16	13	5
People per house	6.1	4.8	5.0	6.3	5.3	5.0	4.3	4.3	5.3	6.5	2.5

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped from seven to two and the population from 49 to five. The initial fall of 14, after the famine years, was followed by a slow steady decline until the 1920s when the position rallied briefly until after the 1937 census.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽³⁾

The following table sets of the names of those who owned or rented houses and land on the townland at the time the valuation records or population censuses were compiled.