Glasstown

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Glasstown is a small rural area, or townland, in the civil parish of Kildallan, in the barony of Tullyhunco, County Cavan, Ireland. It is also known as Port, after the Irish name meaning “the landing place.” The name Glasstown may come from Irish words meaning “The Green Bottom-Lands” or “The Bottom-Lands along the Stream,” though some local tradition mentions a glass factory.

Glasstown is bordered by Cloncose, Drumcase, and Drumkerril to the east and by Feugh (Bishops) and Gorteen (Gorteenagarry) to the west. The landscape features small streams and spring wells and the L5503 road, plus other rural lanes, run through it. The area covers about 119 acres.

Historically, the land belonged to the McKiernan Clan from medieval times until the early 1600s. In the Ulster Plantation, King James VI and I granted the manor of Clonyn (Taghleagh), including Glasstown, to Sir Alexander Hamilton in 1610. A 1611 report describes Hamilton’s possession and ongoing building work there. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the name appears as Port (1790 Carvaghs) and Glass-town (1814–1819).

A Sunday school operated in 1818–19 with 78 scholars. The 1825 Tithe Applotment Books list seven tithepayers. Glasstown Valuation Office books exist for April 1838, and Griffith’s Valuation (1857) records 17 landholders. The main landlord in the 19th century was Hugh Wallace. A 1937 Dúchas folklore description survives. In the 1901 census there were nine families, and in 1911 there were eight families.