Crockancarra clachan is situated in the townland of Cross, Fair Head. It consisted of three houses built of stone with a thatched roof. Traditionally, they were one storey high and had approximately two to three rooms each. The occupants of these houses were people who farmed the surrounding land, which was rented from the Landlord, generally on a 30 year or 3 lives Lease.
According to Griffiths Valuation of 1861-64, this clachan held two McBride families, namely John and Daniel. They rented out accommodation to Patrick Kiernan, Arthur Jameson and Daniel McDonald. Usually, this accommodation consisted of one room only. In addition, a John Connor occupied a house with his wife, Ellen McBride, and they had no family. One end of the cottages is known as Donald’s End to this day, as a Donald Hunter lodged in one room there at some time. The clachan remained occupied up to the 1960s when the last residents were two unmarried McQuilkan sisters.
One aspect of clachan life is that families were usually large and the land could not support so many people. The inevitable result throughout the Glens was mass emigration and this is true of Crockancarra. The above McBride’s are a classic example as the entire family of Dan McBride (c1805-1901) emigrated to New Zealand. John McBride (c1807) had ten children, seven of whom also emigrated to New Zealand. Then Alex McBride (1815-1884) emigrated to New Zealand with his entire family. New Zealand offered great opportunities which most emigrants from the Glens grasped with both hands and became successful farmers and businessmen.
This post is part of the What’s That? Project. Funded by The Community Arts, Culture and Heritage Fund & The Community Foundation for NI. The aim of the project is to highlight local historical sites and give people a short history of what is there. Photos by John Healy.
Kia Ora ,,Firstly I would like to thank and congratulate the writers of these posts,I look forward
to recieving them on a regular basis. The last one on the McBride Family was of particular interest
because Alexander and Catherine McBride were my great great Grandparents.
They followed their eldest son Hugh out to New Zealand in the early eighteen sixties with there whole
family.Dan McBride and his family were also here.They settled on a farm just outside Quèenstown which
is on the shores of Lake Whakatipu. A mountainous area with fertile river valleys .The McBride Families
had a big influence in the young developing Queenstown area ,aswell as farming they were involved in
sawmilling, boatbuilbing, flowermilling and were partners in building and operating one of the first paddle
steamers on the lake .It was named the Antrim and transported supplies to the remote stations around the
Lake .They were highly regarded and have streets ,parks and even mountain tops named after them .
A recent family reunion attracted 150 descendants to Queenstown from all over New Zealand ,it was a
great weekend visiting some of their old houses and buildings that they owned and of course a fair bit
of celebrating. Once again thank you ,and best wishes to you all I must say I have mixed loyalties when
The All Blacks play Ireland
Lance Hyland
Hampden Otago New Zealand.