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Arnold Horner More than may sometimes meet the eye? The Ordnance Survey ‘fair plans’. THE MAPS OF THE Ordnance Survey of Ireland (recently incorporated into Tailte Éireann and this year celebrating its 200th anniversary) are rightly recognised as major sources for exploring multiple aspects of the heritage of Ireland, past and present. Particularly noteworthy is the great early achievement of the Survey: the completion of a countrywide map coverage at a scale of six inches to one mile (1:10,560). Produced between 1832 and 1846, the ‘six-inch’ maps (as they are widely known) covered the entire island of Ireland in some 1,900 map sheets that have the particular interest of portraying the landscape at a period when rural population was in many areas at or close to its highest, and just before a pivotal event of the nineteenth century: the Great Famine of 1845–8. The six-inch maps were engraved and printed on a county-by-county basis and were issued in two versions: one uncoloured, the other with boundaries and some other features hand-coloured. These maps have been widely used by scholars from various disciplines, particularly in recent years, when their accessibility has been greatly enhanced by their online availability at the GeoHive map viewer (www.geohive.ie) and other State agency portals. Much attention has also been given over the years to the wealth of supplementary documentation generated by the Survey, most notably the letters of the scholar John O’Donovan (1806–61) and his associates, and the various memoirs and name-books. However, another version of the maps, which exists only in manuscript form and which has never been comprehensively digitised, is much less well known, even though it has some significant elements that may be unique and of scholarly interest. This version is the ‘fair plans’, the manuscript mock-ups or drafts which were meticulously prepared by the staff of the five field survey divisions prior to submission to head office at the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The fair plans were prepared for individual parishes, with some small parishes combined on a single sheet and large parishes being spread across several sheets (up to nineteen in the case of a large Kerry parish). Having been forwarded to head office, the plans were co-ordinated and merged to produce the rectangular sheets which covered each county. Part of the work undertaken at this stage appears to have involved the standardisation of place-names and the editing out of any contrasts in content and symbolisation that had emerged between or within the five survey districts. Detailed instructions issued at a very early stage in the mapping process aimed to ensure a general uniformity in survey methods, the gathering of information and the presentation of the maps. A crucial amendment made in the mid-1830s allowed for a more comprehensive inclusion of field boundaries. Although generally followed faithfully, some instructions turned out to pose Above and right: Fig. 1—Part of the area southwest of Ballyfin demesne, Co. Laois, as depicted on the fair plan of 1838 (left) and on the engraved and printed version of the six-inch map, published in 1840. The fair plan (Sheet 333C, part of Clonenagh and Clona[g]heen, now in NAI) coverage ends at the parish boundary. On the printed version, the townland name, ‘Knocks’, has been repositioned, and some features named on the fair plan have been deleted. Townland boundaries are indicated in red on the hand-coloured version of the printed map. problems. One such was for the least permanent of residential buildings, the mud cabins, to be shown on the fair plans in black, whereas houses of brick and stone were to be shown in red (carmine). That edict appears to have been observed in only some of the OS survey districts. Almost inevitably, various other local and inter-district contrasts also developed; for example, some but not all of the fair plans identified distinctive elements of the landscape such as prominent trees and the location of specialised buildings 14 Autumn 2024
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ORDNANCE SURVEY such as watch-houses on bleach greens, smithies and public houses (the latter presumably being included as useful aids to define position, and not as part of some informal scheme to record ‘water-holes’ of potential interest to the surveyors). At head office, standardised symbols were used for some of the features that had been named on the fair plans, such as limekilns and swallow-holes. Other features were Below: Fig. 2—Part of the ‘Goldsmith country’, including the townlands of Lissoy, Cloghannagarragh and Cannorstown (Hogan) in the parish of Noughaval (alias Noghill), as depicted on the fair plan of 1838 (left, NAI Sheet 116C, part II) and on the engraved and printed version of the six-inch map, published in 1840. On the fair plan, ‘reminiscences of Goldsmith’s deserted village’ are identified, including the blossomed furze and the spreading tree. Other features deleted on the printed plan include two smithies and a public house, whilst symbols replace the verbal marking of limekilns. Also on the printed plan, ‘Cannonstown’ has been changed to ‘Cannorstown’, ‘school ho.’ has been added and, unusually, ‘the Pigeons public house’ is marked, although not in the location that it occupied later in the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. The section of the printed plan shown here joins parts of Westmeath OS Sheets 15 and 16. Autumn 2024 15

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Arnold Horner

More than may sometimes meet the eye?

The Ordnance Survey ‘fair plans’.

THE MAPS OF THE Ordnance Survey of Ireland (recently incorporated into Tailte Éireann and this year celebrating its 200th anniversary) are rightly recognised as major sources for exploring multiple aspects of the heritage of Ireland, past and present. Particularly noteworthy is the great early achievement of the Survey: the completion of a countrywide map coverage at a scale of six inches to one mile (1:10,560). Produced between 1832 and 1846, the ‘six-inch’ maps (as they are widely known) covered the entire island of Ireland in some 1,900 map sheets that have the particular interest of portraying the landscape at a period when rural population was in many areas at or close to its highest, and just before a pivotal event of the nineteenth century: the Great Famine of 1845–8.

The six-inch maps were engraved and printed on a county-by-county basis and were issued in two versions: one uncoloured, the other with boundaries and some other features hand-coloured. These maps have been widely used by scholars from various disciplines, particularly in recent years, when their accessibility has been greatly enhanced by their online availability at the GeoHive map viewer (www.geohive.ie) and other State agency portals. Much attention has also been given over the years to the wealth of supplementary documentation generated by the Survey, most notably the letters of the scholar John O’Donovan (1806–61) and his associates, and the various memoirs and name-books. However, another version of the maps, which exists only in manuscript form and which has never been comprehensively digitised, is much less well known, even though it has some significant elements that may be unique and of scholarly interest. This version is the ‘fair plans’, the manuscript mock-ups or drafts which were meticulously prepared by the staff of the five field survey divisions prior to submission to head office at the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

The fair plans were prepared for individual parishes, with some small parishes combined on a single sheet and large parishes being spread across several sheets (up to nineteen in the case of a large Kerry parish). Having been forwarded to head office, the plans were co-ordinated and merged to produce the rectangular sheets which covered each county. Part of the work undertaken at this stage appears to have involved the standardisation of place-names and the editing out of any contrasts in content and symbolisation that had emerged between or within the five survey districts.

Detailed instructions issued at a very early stage in the mapping process aimed to ensure a general uniformity in survey methods, the gathering of information and the presentation of the maps. A crucial amendment made in the mid-1830s allowed for a more comprehensive inclusion of field boundaries. Although generally followed faithfully, some instructions turned out to pose

Above and right: Fig. 1—Part of the area southwest of Ballyfin demesne, Co. Laois, as depicted on the fair plan of 1838 (left) and on the engraved and printed version of the six-inch map, published in 1840. The fair plan (Sheet 333C, part of Clonenagh and Clona[g]heen, now in NAI) coverage ends at the parish boundary. On the printed version, the townland name, ‘Knocks’, has been repositioned, and some features named on the fair plan have been deleted. Townland boundaries are indicated in red on the hand-coloured version of the printed map.

problems. One such was for the least permanent of residential buildings, the mud cabins, to be shown on the fair plans in black, whereas houses of brick and stone were to be shown in red (carmine). That edict appears to have been observed in only some of the OS survey districts. Almost inevitably, various other local and inter-district contrasts also developed; for example, some but not all of the fair plans identified distinctive elements of the landscape such as prominent trees and the location of specialised buildings

14

Autumn 2024

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