The mystery of a lost village in Mayo

LOCAL folklore has it that there is a lost village in Scardaune, four miles south of Claremorris.

In the 1930s Scardaune suffered from a very lengthy heatwave. Most of the wells in the area dried up and became stagnant, which made life difficult for local farmers.

However, one particular well, known as Sean tShráid (old street), continued to provide a plentiful supply of fresh water for the local community.

This old street, as it was called by local people, was in the lost village of Eaghterwalla, which was close to the village of Scardaune.

The well on the Brannick farm, Tobair an Sionnach (Foxs’ well), also maintained a constant supply of water since it was sank in 1887.

The lost village covered part of Brannick’s lands and James Gill’s holding, near Shuruck. However, no trace of the lost village has been seen for close on 300 years.

The reason for its disappearance is shrouded in mystery. One theory put forward is that the population of the village was entirely wiped out during the Great Frost, 1740/1741, when the potato crop, along with milk the staple diet of the Irish people at the time, rotted in the fields.

The estimated population of Ireland in 1740 was 2.4 million people. Starvation stalked the land and 38% of the people died.

Another interesting story that surfaced in the 1930s concerned a very large well in the village of Ballynagran.

For some obscure reason the well was covered over by a man named Hugh O’Neill. The well was located on a farm owned by the Hughes family.

In those days the well was an area where people met and discussed local affairs.

For women especially going to the well was a social occasion where all the happenings of the day, births, deaths and marriages, were discussed.

The wells were replaced by group water schemes in later years which took a lot of drudgery out of country living.

Two ash trees on the Hughes farm survived the Night of the Big Wind, January 6, 1839, when it is recorded that one local resident said every tree and whin bush in the area was uprooted and blown several miles away by the sheer strength of the storm.

The Irish translation of Ballynagran is the village of the trees.