Mayo’s deserted villages

The ferns, nettles, bushes, and briars now hide much of what was once a 19th-century village on the slopes of the Ox Mountains.

The crumbling ruins of the small stone cottages and outhouses in the deserted village or clachán at Byhalla (Boyhollagh) are all that remain to remind us of the families who lived there.

We can only imagine how they had to toil daily to survive on a small plot of poor, mountain land in the years before Ireland’s Great Famine.

A walk up the Ox Mountains, near the lovely village of Attymass, brought us by the deserted homesteads at Byhalla and as we continued to trek up the mountain, I got to thinking about those who had once lived in this lovely but harsh environment.

Although little is known today about the abandoned village at Byhalla, its story is likely to be typical of so many settlements throughout Mayo and the West of Ireland that fell victim to the Great Famine and were slowly deserted over the following decades.

The few boggy acres that the Byhalla villagers farmed were just enough land to grow potatoes and graze a cow to feed themselves.

The ghostly ruins of the isolated settlement are just one of a number of such deserted villages in Co Mayo which include the deserted village at Glendaduff, not far from Byhalla.

These abandoned villages, the most famous of which is Achill Island’s Deserted Village at Slievemore, are all that remains of a time when small farming communities clustered together in clacháns farming the potato dependent on the Rundale system of land ownership.

The Rundale system of landholding meant that poor quality land was leased by local landlords to a tenant who then sublet it amongst 20-30 others who clawed out a subsistence living from the bog and rock.

Over the years, the plots were divided and sub-divided amongst family members in a form of subsistence farming that is mirrored today in the poorest of Third World countries.

In the foothills of the Ox Mountains, the deserted village at Byhalla would have been full of life up to the mid-19th century before the Great Famine wiped out so many families and drove the survivors to take the emigrant ship to the UK or the United States.

All that remains of the settlement now is a row of roofless cottages and outhouses. Locals believe that the village was abandoned after the Great Famine.

The cottages at Byhalla seem typical of Irish cottages of the 19th century. The small dwellings consisted of a living area in the centre with 2 bedrooms at either end.

With no foundations, the floors were made from compacted mud, clay or flagstones, and the light came in through a small window. The roof was usually stuffed with turf for insulation and thatched with heather and rushes plentiful in the locality.

Abandoned in 1966

Further up the mountain, you pass through a sheltered gorge, forested with beautiful Hazel trees. About a mile beyond the deserted village there are two other more recently abandoned dwellings, not far from the mountaintop.

These abandoned houses were well built; sturdy structures with slated roofs that date from a much later period than the deserted village lower down the mountain. There are a number of outbuildings which also give a fascinating insight into how families survived on this boggy mountain-side.

Locals say that the two families who lived close to the mountain summit both left in 1966 although it seems one person did return to occupy one of the houses in the 1990s, but not surprisingly he did not stay for long in this isolated location.

One of the outbuildings at this location is built into a slope and is quite interesting. My walking companion was of the opinion that the two- storey stone structure was a pigsty over a granary or some type of storehouse that had an enclosed walled area below, possibly for pigs.

There is also a cow byre where one or two cows were kept. A trail leads to the top of the mountain from where turf was harvested.

Life must have been a constant struggle for all those who lived in these Mayo mountain clacháns. Only the old Irish Meitheal spirit of neighbours supporting each other could have compensated for the lonely location and long trek to the local village.

This constant struggle to survive on this tranquil mountaintop, which on a fine day has panoramic views all the way to Lough Conn and Crossmolina, is a reminder of how our forebears struggled during another era when the greed and heartless power of a few caused such hardship for so many.

Inishkea Islanders

One of Mayo’s best-preserved island clacháns can be found on the Inishkea Islands.

The earliest settlements on the Inishkea Islands off the Mullet in North Mayo have been dated between the 6th and 10th centuries when the islands were noted as monastic settlements attracting pilgrims from the mainland.

The last islanders left the Inishkeas in 1934-5 and settled on the Mullet. The death knell for the community was sounded when 10 young islanders were drowned in the devastating hurricane of October 1927.

The deserted village on Inishkea South is all that remains of this Mayo island settlement that survived for centuries.

Thankfully, this village has been given the kiss of life with two of the old cottages now renovated by descendants of the original inhabitants for use as holiday dwellings.

Achill’s Deserted Village

Mayo’s most famous and largest deserted village is on Achill Island on the slopes of Slievemore mountain. Known as booley homes, the one-room dwellings were only used in summer by farmers grazing their livestock on the mountain slopes.

The village is the largest and most recently abandoned of a number of such seasonal settlements. The 80-100 stone cottages located along a mile-long stretch of road on the southern slopes of Slievemore mountain were occupied up until fairly recent times.

Kildare and Meath Migrations

One of the last villages in Mayo to be abandoned was in Cuiltybo between Kiltimagh and Kilkelly.

The village and one of its occupants can be seen in the above photograph taken in late 1937 by Ballina photographer, Tommy Battle. The caption explains that the 15 families who lived in the 21 cottages were migrating to Co Meath. Later, the remaining families migrated to Kildare.

The caption also says that the location of the village was Cuiltybo near Kilconduff, Swinford, but I have made enquirers in that area and there is no record of such a place or village.

The Cuiltybo referred to is near Kiltimagh which has been confirmed in the comments section below by Christina Langan and hereunder by Conor Brennan, a descendant of one of the families who migrated from Cultiybo in the 1930s. Mr Brennan has confirmed that the village was located near Kiltimagh. He has also gratefully provided some valuable information about the Mayo families who moved to the Darley estate in Kill, Co. Kildare.

According to Conor Brennan:

“I can confirm that picture is Cultiybo, Kiltimagh. I have similar photos of the village before the migration of the Brennans, O’Briens, Kilgallons and two families of McLoughlins to Sallins and Arthurstown in Kill Co. Kildare.

“At the recent funeral of my aunt, Aine O’Neill (née Brennan), who was the last of the Brennans, born in Cuiltybo, great stories were told of how they all arrived in Kildare. Our neighbour, Tony McLoughlin, still survives and remembers the times well; he can recall who drove the lorry.

“On our road in Prospect, Sallins, which was Cornel Darley’s estate, there came Martin and Mary Brennan (née O’Brien) and children, Eva, Una, Maura, Aine, Tony, John and Joe; Martin’s father, Timothy, Mary’s mother, Winifred and brother went to Arthurstown, Kill.

“The next farm up was and is Flash and Bee McLoughlin’s and family. The next farm was James McLoughlin and their family. Further towards Kill, at the Canal bridge, the Kilgallons still abide.

“In this area, and surrounds, you either come from Mayo or Kerry because before the Land Commission the houses and community didn’t exist as it was all estate land.”

Erris families

During the 1940s, under the auspices of The Land Commission, De Valera’s Government resettled many families from the West of Ireland in Meath and Kildare, including families from Mayo, mainly from the east of the county and Erris.

The migration offered families eking out a hard living from marginal land much better prospects in the prime farming lands of Meath and Kildare.

In March 1943, the Irish Press reported that “almost 50 people, the youngest 18 months, the oldest 96 years, spent 12 hours by train and bus on the journey to their new homes in Meath and Kildare.”

Included were the Carey family and their 14 children, who are pictured below under the caption:

“In Ainm an Athar – When the Mayo migrants arrived at the new homes yesterday, their first action before entering them was to sprinkle holy water on the doorways invoking God’s blessing on the house. Here is Mrs Bridget Carey who travelled with her husband and 14 children performing the ceremony. Photo: Irish Press, 28-03-1943.“

Met by Land Commission officials, under whose auspices the resettlement programme was carried out, the families were taken from Kilcock railway station to their new homes where “fires were burning in the new houses and cooked meals awaiting the travellers, with milk for the children.”

The report continued: “The families were from Belmullet, Carrowmore and Glenamoy and included Michael Carey with 14 children.
wife, grandmother and grand-aunt – a four-generation family; his youngest child is one and a half years, his grandmother 82.

“Others were Patrick King, nine children, grandmother aged 96. She had never left Mayo before: John Staunton, with eight children: Michael 0’Donoghue, with six; Michael Munnelly with his mother and sister: John Hegarty, with five in the family; Anthony Tighe, with five. and G. Munnelly, with seven.
“Messrs. T. O’Sullivan and P. Casey of the Land Commission, Dublin, met the migrants, who were accompanied by the Commission’s representative at Belmullet. Mr. M. Wynne.
Seventeen more families from Mayo are to follow the migrants who arrived yesterday.”