•  County Roscommon, Ireland

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In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described County Roscommon like this:

Roscommon.-- inland co. of Connaught province, Ireland, bounded NE. by co. Leitrim, E. by cos. Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath, SE. by King's co., SW. by co. Galway, and NW. by cos. Mayo and Sligo; greatest length, N. and S., 62 miles; greatest breadth, E. and W., 35 miles; area, 607,691 ac. (29,370 water), or 2.9 per cent, of the total area of Ireland; pop. ...

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132,490, of whom 96.5 per cent, are Roman Catholics, 3.1 Episcopalians, 0.2 Presbyterians, and 0.1 Methodists. The surface is diversified by hills (especially in the N.), some fertile plains, bogs, and Loughs. The river Shannon flows along the whole extent of the E. boundary, and the Suck divides a great part of the co. on the W. from co. Galway. The largest loughs are Allen, Boderg, and Nee on the line of the Shannon; and Key, Gara, and Glinn in the NW. The state of husbandry is very bad; sheep and cattle are reared in great numbers on the extensive grazing lands. (For agricultural statistics, see Appendix.) Carboniferous limestone is the prevailing rock; old red sandstone occurs near Boyle in the N., and at Slievebawn on the E. border. Iron ore and coal are found in the extreme N., and marble is obtained in the S. between Lough Ree and river Suck. The co. comprises 10 bars.- Athlone (North and South), Ballintober (North and South), Ballymoe, Boyle, Castle-reagh, Frenchpark, Moycarn, and Roscommon, 53 pars, and 7 parts of pars., and the towns of Athlone (part of), Ballinasloe (part of), Boyle, and Roscommon. For parl. purposes the co. is divided into 2 divisions - viz., North Roscommon and South Roscommon.- each returning 1 member.

Vision of Ireland presents long-run change by redistricting historical statistics to modern units. However, none of our modern units covers an area close to that of County Roscommon. If you want trends covering a particular location within the county, find it on our historical maps and then select "Tell me more".

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