Carran

Carran is a townland of 309 statute acres 3 roods and 10 perches just north of Crossmaglen and on the right of the road to Cullyhanna. It is bounded on the north and northeast by Cloghoge, on the east by Urker, on the south and southwest by Rathkeelan and on the northwest by Creenkil. The Tithe Applotment Books records the area of the townland as 181 acres 2 roods and 29 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Carn, "The cairn" ⁽¹⁾.

There are 11 townlands in Ireland called 'Carran'. They are in Counties Armagh, Clare, Cork, Fermanagh, Kerry, Kilkenny, Derry and Tyrone.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

CARRAN (OSNB ii 25) This is high land of a light soil producing small crops of Oats, Potatoes and Flax. It is chiefly under tillage. Two good roads intersect each other at the W. side. Part of the S. and approaches being near Crossmaglen village. There is also a fort on its E. side and a portion of bog.
It contains 309..3..10 of which 11..0..28 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	1828	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£151.45	£157.45	£163.50	£193.50	£193.50	£193.75	£193.75	£192.75	£192.50	£192.00	£208.00	£324.75	£472.00	£562.35

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

Griffiths Valuation records that ownership of the townland was shared between Michael Kelly and Denis Kelly.

Census of Ireland 1901

In the 1901 Census of Ireland 81 persons were enumerated in 20 households; a ratio of 4 people per household. The households occupied a total of 49 rooms; a ratio of 2.5 rooms per family and 1.7 people per room. Ten of the families had 3 rooms, nine had 2 rooms and one had a single room.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 20 households enumerated in the Census four contained at least one native Irish speaker. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominently Irish speaking environment, their names are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh -

• Phoebe McShane, farmer, widow, aged 70
• Edward McVeigh, farmer, aged 51
• Jane Daly, farmer, aged 54 and her sister Bridget McMahon, aged 50
• John McNulty, farmer, aged 84

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	29	26	27	24	23	20	18	15	16	15
People	160	161	145	126	103	95	81	74	55	51	62
People per house	5.5	5.6	5.6	4.7	4.3	4.1	4.1	4.1	3.7	3.2	4.1

In the period of 110 years, the number of households more than halved and the population dropped by 60%. Initially unaffected by the Great Famine, in terms of numbers, the population from 1861 began a steady decline over the following 80 years before, in 1951, showing a slight increase.

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.