Introduction

Part I
LETTERS containing information relative to the
ANTIQUITIES of the COUNTY OF CLARE,
collected during the progress of the
ORDNANCE SURVEY in 1839.

Part II
LETTERS and EXTRACTS relative to
ANCIENT TERRITORIES in THOMOND, 1841.

The Ordnance Survey Letters contain the correspondence between fieldworkers and the Ordnance Survey Office in Dublin during the compilation of the first Irish Ordnance Survey Maps. The fieldworkers in County Clare included two of the foremost Gaelic scholars of the day, John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry. The Clare letters, written in 1839, record a great variety of antiquities for inclusion in the maps as well as commentaries on parish and family histories. The text given here is based on typescripts prepared in 1928 under the direction of Rev. M. Flanagan, who also compiled the abstracts given at the beginning of each section. The introduction to the Letters was prepared by Dr. William Nolan in 1997.