Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The Down Survey of Ireland on Google Maps
The Down Survey of Ireland was the first ever detailed land survey undertaken on a national scale anywhere in the world. The survey was taken in the years 1656-1658 to measure all the land to be forfeited by the Catholic Irish after their defeat by Oliver Cromwell's armies of the English Commonwealth.
Trinity College Dublin has brought all the surviving maps together for the first time in over 300 years, digitised them and made them available as a public online resource. The Down Survey of Ireland website allows you to browse all the available maps by county, barony and parish. Each map can then be viewed in detail using the map viewer's zoom and panning tools.
The Down Survey of Ireland website also includes a map of the 1641 Depositions. Following the Irish Rebellion of 1641 a collection of accounts by Protestant victims of the rebellion was assembled between 1642 and 1655. You can view the locations of the depositions on a Google Map, which includes options to view the depositions on top of map overlays of the 1670 Down Survey maps or an 1890 Ordnance Survey map.