The publications listed below have been listed in chronological order. The seminal article on clachans and rundale is that of Professor Estyn Evans published in 1939. Interestingly, Evans does not use the word ‘clachan’ anywhere in this article. Instead, he refers to the house clusters as rundale communities, towns or townships. He appears to first use the term ‘clachan’ in his book, Irish Heritage, first published in 1942, and it used in his later books – Mourne Country (1951), Irish Folkways (1957) and The Personality of Ireland (1973).
Desmond McCourt’s thesis of 1950, following on from his M.A. thesis of 1947, was the first detailed study of clachans throughout Ireland and he published many articles on clachans and rundale between 1954 and 1981. Virtually all of the other articles listed below, between these dates, were published by students of Evans or McCourt.
With the exception of James Anderson, the publications from the 1990s onwards are not by students of Evans or McCourt. Whelan, in particular, has questioned some of the assertions of the Evans school regarding clachans and rundale in the west of Ireland. He is critical of the view that the west of Ireland was harbouring residues of an ancient peasant culture, arguing instead that much of the west was relatively unsettled until the population explosion of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He sees rundale as ideally suited to supporting growing populations in areas of marginal land such as the west of Ireland. The final article by Tom Yager (2002) reviews much of the literature listed below and, through a study of the village of Faulmore, at the tip of the Mullet Peninsula in the Barony of Erris, County Mayo, adds to the ‘story’ of clachans and rundale in Ireland.
We hope that the material gathered during the Glens of Antrim Clachan Project (2004-2007) will also add to this ongoing ‘story’ as well as raising an awareness of this important part of our cultural heritage amongst old and young in the Glens and, through our web site, a much wider audience.
E. E. Evans, ‘Some Survivals of the Irish Openfield System’, Geography, Vol. 24, 1939, pp. 24-36.
Desmond McCourt, Rundale and its Social Concomitants, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1947.
Desmond McCourt, The Rundale System in Ireland: a Study of its Geographical Distribution and Social Relations, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1950.
Desmond McCourt, ‘Infield and Outfield in Ireland’, The Economic History Review, (Second Series), Vol. 7, 1954, pp. 369-376.
Desmond McCourt, ‘The rundale system in Donegal’, Donegal Annual, Vol. 3, 1955, pp. 47-60.
Desmond McCourt, ‘Surviving Openfield in County Londonderry’, Ulster Folklife, Vol. 4, 1958, pp. 18-28.
R. H. Buchanan, The Barony of Lecale, County Down – a study in regional personality, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1958.
R. H. Buchanan, J. H. Johnson & V. B. Proudfoot, ‘Excavations at Murphystown, Co. Down’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 21, 1958, pp. 115-126.
J. H. Johnson, ‘Partnership and Clachans in Mid-Nineteenth Century Londonderry’ Ulster Folklife, Vol. 9, 1963, pp. 20-29.
J. H. Johnson, ‘The disappearance of clachans from County Derry in the Nineteenth Century’, Irish Geography, Vol. 4 No. 5, 1963, pp. 404-414.
James Anderson, ‘The decay and breakup of the rundale system in the Barony of Tirhugh, Donegal Annual, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1964, pp. 1-42. (Anderson was a student of McCourt.)
B. S. Mac Aodha, ‘Clachan Settlement in Iar-Connacht’, Irish Geography, Vol. 5 No. 2, 1965, pp. 20-28.
B. J. Graham, ‘The Disappearance of Clachans from South Ards, Co. Down in the Nineteenth Century’, Irish Geography, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1971 pp. 263-269.
Desmond McCourt, ‘The dynamic quality of Irish rural settlement’ in R. H. Buchanan, Emrys Jones & Desmond McCourt (eds.), Man and his Habitat: Essays presented to Emyr Estyn Evans, London, 1971, pp. 126-164.
R. H. Buchanan, ‘Field Systems in Ireland’, in A. R. Baker & R. A. Butlin (eds.), Studies of Field Systems in the British Isles, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 580-618.
E. A. Currie, ‘Landscape Development in South Derry in the Eighteenth Century’, Studia Hibernica, Vol. 19, 1979, pp. 78-101.
Desmond McCourt, ‘The decline of rundale, 1750-1850’, in Peter Roebuck (ed.), Plantation to Partition: Essays in Ulster History in honour of J. L. McCracken, Belfast, 1981, pp. 119-139.
M. E. Cawley, ‘Aspects of Continuity and Change in Rural Settlement Patterns’, Studia Hibernica, Vols. 22 & 23, 1982-83, pp. 106-127.
Martina O’Donnell, ‘Farm Clusters in North-West Inishowen, c.1850’, Irish Geography, Vol. 26 No. 2, 1993, pp. 101-119.
James Anderson, ‘Rundale, rural economy and agrarian revolution: Tirhugh 1715-1855’, in W. Nolan, L. Ronayne & Mairead Dunlevy (eds.), Donegal History and Society, Dublin, 1995, pp. 447-470.
Kevin Whelan, ‘Settlement patterns in the West of Ireland in the pre-Famine period’, in T. Collins (ed.) Decoding the Landscape, Galway, 1994, pp. 60-78.
Kevin Whelan, ‘The modern landscape: from plantation to present’, in F. H. A. Aalen, Kevin Whelan & Geraldine Stout (eds.), Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, Cork, 1997, pp. 67-103.
Tom Yager, ‘What was rundale and where did it come from?’, Bealoideas, Vol. LXX, 2002, pp. 153-186.