Maps for Ballymoney Rural Area

In 1824 a House of Commons Committee recommended that Ireland should be mapped at a scale of six inches to one mile (1:10560). The main reasons for this choice of scale was that the maps were to be used to carry out a townland valuation of the entire country for tax purposes. The task was given to the Ordnance Survey and the first maps were produced during the 1830s. Revisions of these maps took place in during the late 1850s/early 1860s. The country was resurveyed again around 1900 and new maps were produced around 1905. This map was then revised during the 1920s/30s. Some areas around towns were further revised in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This series of maps is usually referred to as the County Series to distinguish them from the modern-day, Irish Grid system, which came into existence during the 1960s. Copies of the County Series maps are available from PRONI.

Clearly, it would be impossible to provide you with copies of these maps for the entire Ballymoney area. Also, since each map is approximately 36 inches square, pictures of whole maps would not be of much use - as this example of the 1833 sheet 17 for the Ballymoney area shows. Instead, I have chosen three areas within the Ballymoney rural area centred on Seacon/Tullaghgore, Ballycormick/Ballywattick and Killyramer/Kilraghts - see map.

You will notice, that although there is seventy years between the 1857 and 1930s maps, they look remarkably similar. There is much more of a contrast between the 1833 and 1857 maps particularly for the Ballycormick/Ballywattick and Seacon/Tullaghgore areas. There are two main reasons for this:

1. The 1833 map, which was the first edition, did not include field boundaries. The 1857 edition, which is a revision of the 1833 map, did include field boundaries.
2. Considerable change took place in the road network between the two dates. During this period the new roads to Coleraine and Portrush were constructed.

The Killyramer and Kilraghts maps do not have much change in the main road network between 1833 and 1857.

These Ordnance Survey Maps were used as base maps by the valuers who carried out Griffith's Valuation from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. You will see these valuation maps when you look at the 1859 Griffith's Printed Valuation.