Tullyard

Tullyard is a small townland of 187 statute acres and 2 perches in County Armagh about two miles northwest of Crossmaglen, straddling the road to Castleblaney. It is bounded on the northwest and north by County Monaghan, on the north and north-east by Corliss, on the south-east and south by Loughross, on the south-west by Drumgose and on the west by Clarbane. In the 1828 Tithe Applotment Books the total area is recorded as 161 acres 3 roods and 10 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Tullach Ard, "The high hill" ⁽¹⁾.

There are 16 townlands called 'Tullyard' in Ireland. They are in Counties Armagh (2), Cavan, Donagal (2), Down (2), Louth, Meath, Monaghan (3) and Tyrone (4).

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

TULLYARD (OSNB i 5): The road from Crossmaglen to Castleblaney passes thro' this td. Its distance from Crossmaglen Is about 1 1/2 miles & from Castleblaney about 3 1/2. There is a few patches of bog in this td. the remainder under tillage. The soil is of a very light shallow description producing inferior crops of oats, potatoes & Flax. There is an old Fort In the middle of this td.
It contains 187..10..26 of which 3..1..2 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	£91.79	£112.75	£124.50	£124.00	£125.25	£126.25	£125.65	£124.90	£123.75	£136.25	£134.25	£159.25	£175.25

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 Andrew McMath.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 19 households enumerated in the 1901 Census five contained native Irish speakers. 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 -

• Anne McCabe, farmer, 85
• Edward Mckenna, farmer, 52
• Ellen Quinn, no occupation given, widow, 52
• Thomas Taffe, farmer, 70
• Hugh McNulty, farmer, 67

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	29	28	26	26	21	21	19	16	14	14	12
People	146	113	119	117	90	81	73	69	58	40	33
People per house	5.0	4.0	4.6	4.5	4.3	3.9	3.8	4.3	4.1	2.9	2.8

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 59% and the population by 77%. The initial fall of 23% between 1841 and 1851 - the famine years, was followed by a slight recovery over the next 20 years before a rapid decline in the 1870s and a steady reduction at each following 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.