Sheiland

Sheiland is a townland of 91 statute acres 3 roods and 19 perches about a mile south of Crossmaglen. It is bounded, clockwise from north, by Urcher, Drummuck, Drummuckavall, Moybane, Crossmaglen and Monog. In the Tithe Applotment Books in 1828 it is called Shillan and is recorded as 40 acres 3 roods and 15 perches (Plantation Irish measure)

Name of townland

Siollan, "A withe or osier"; or Síollán, "A winnowing place" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

SHEILAND (OSNB iiI 46): This Is a very small td. and lies S.W. of the village of Crossmaglen about 1 mile. A large portion of this td. Is bog, There Is a group of very poor houses In the centre each of which has a small tilled farm, the land Is of an inferior quality.
It contains 91..1..39 of which 25..0..24 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	£35.57	£42.50	£77.50	£62.00	£63.00	£58.50	£53.50	£51.00	£51.10	£52.85	£52.85	£54.60	£53.35

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

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land as Philip McArdle.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 11 people in 4 households - a ratio of 2.8 people per family. These families occupied a total of 9 rooms, a ratio of 2.3 people per room.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the four households enumerated in the Census, 1 contained at least one native Irish speaker; born in Co. Armagh.

• Terence McCann, farm labourer, 26

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	10	7	3	5	6	4	4	3	2	2	2
People	53	45	15	20	24	17	11	5	4	2	2
People per house	5.3	6.4	5.0	4.0	4.0	4.3	2.8	1.7	2.0	1.0	1.0

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 80% and the population by 96%. The townland had virtually emptied of people by the 1930s.

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.