Liscalgat

Liscalgat is a long, narrow townland of 220 acres and 27 perches extending south from the end of the Cregganbane Glebe. The Creggan River (which changes its name to the Castletown River further along its course) runs along its eastern boundary. It is bounded on the north by Cregganbane, on the east by Drumbally and Coolderry, on the south by Clarnagh and on the west by Drummuck and Urcher. In the Tithe applotment Book of 1828 its area is shown as 130 acres and 23 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of the townland

Lios Calcachta, "The fort of the stagnant water" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

LISCALGAT (OSNB ii 35): There is a considerable portion of bog and uncultivated ground. A bye road runs thro' it. The soil is light producing inferior crops of Oats & Potatoes. The dwellings are few in this Td. but miserable.
It contains 220..0..27 of which 35..0..26 is uncultivated and Bog.

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	£111.76	£107.25	£138.50	£137.50	£137.50	£137.50	£137.50	£137.25	£140.25	£154.30	£154.30	£169.00	£171.75

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There was only one such house in the townland -

• Samuel Gilmore.

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land as Richard Allen.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 42 people in 14 families; a ratio of three persons per family. Nine of the families occupied two rooms, three occupied three rooms and two had four or more rooms.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 14 households enumerated in the Census, 7 contained at least one native Irish speaker - 8 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantially Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh.

• John McGeeney, farmer, 65
  and his wife Ellen, 62
• Anne McCoy, farmer, widow, 68
• Owen Keenan, farmer, 60
• Rose Keenan, dressmaker, 40
• Anne Larkin, mother of Thomas, 86
• Bridget McCabe, caretaker on farm, widow, 66
• Mary Quinn, sister-in-law of Ellen Loye, housekeeper, 62

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	20	19	14	14	14	14	14	13	10	11	10
People	126	82	69	62	81	68	42	37	31	29	34
People per house	6.3	4.3	4.9	4.4	5.8	4.9	3.0	2.8	3.1	2.6	3.4

In the period of 110 years, the number of households was halved and the population dropped by 73%. The initial fall of 35% after the famine years, was followed by more losses until the 1881 census showed a significant improvement. However, the improvement did not last and the decline continued until the 1920s when the position stabilised.

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.