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Land Divisions & Land Area in Ireland

ADMINISTRATIVE & POLITICAL DIVISIONS

The smallest administrative division of land in Ireland is the Townland .

Townlands vary in size from 2/3 of an acre to 7,000 acres

Townland (in Irish "baile fearainn")
Parish (Civil)	This corresponds with the Church of Ireland parish, also with the ancient Roman Catholic parish that preceded it
Parish (RC)	The present (modern) Roman Catholic parish. If this happens to carry the same name as a corresponding civil parish, the boundaries of the two usually vary considerably.
Barony
County	There are 26 counties in Ireland
Province	There are 4 provinces in Ireland

LAND AREA

Units of "land area" measurement in Ireland during the 19th century and earlier were:

ACRE	10 acres = 1 Gneeve 120 acres = 1 Townland
GNEEVE	2 Gneeves = 1 Sessiagh 12 Gneeves = 1 Townland
SESSIAGH	3 Sessiaghs = 1 Ballyboe or Tate 16 Sessiaghs = 1 Townland
BALLYBOE (a.k.a. Tate)	2 Ballyboes = 1 Ploughland, Seisreagh or Carrow 8 Ballyboes = 1 Townland
PLOUGHLAND (a.k.a. Seisreagh or Carrow)	4 Ploughlands = 1 Townland or Ballybetagh
TOWNLAND (a.k.a. Ballybetagh)	30 Townlands = 1 Barony or Triocha Céad
BARONY (a.k.a. Triocha Céad)

The actual size of each of these units varied considerably according to the quality of the land in each place. In ancient times land was measured in terms of its economic potential rather than using fixed units of measurement, i.e. by the number of cattle that an area of pasture land could support, or the time taken to plough an area of arable land.