Qualla: Tóin an tSeanbhaile https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tóin an tSeanbhaile https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile Tóin an tSeanbhaile: Introduction https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile/ Photo credit Boholaman at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The name means 'the end of the old village,' and the name is the clue. Tóin an tSeanbhaile is one of the oldest settlements on Achill Island, a flat plain in the northeast corner where the bedrock surfaces in glints of schist and gneiss and the lakes carry names older than English. Loch Geall, the bright lake. Loch Dubh, the black lake. Sruhill Lough, the tidal lake. Around them lies bog, and around the bog lies the sea. The 1911 census counted 253 people. Today there are roughly 113. The old village keeps ending.

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Image: Boholaman at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/gc8g-t-in-an-tseanbhaile-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tóin an tSeanbhaile: Layers Older Than Memory https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile/ Photo credit Hootsmac, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walk the southern townland and you walk through millennia. A cairn stands south of the modern village near Bun an Churraigh. On Caraun Point, where the first settlement is thought to have stood, there are the remains of a midden, a ringfort, and an enclosure. A crannóg, the small...

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Image: Hootsmac | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/gc8g-t-in-an-tseanbhaile-layers-older-than-memory.mp3 0:06 2 full Tóin an tSeanbhaile: The Attack at Valley House https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile/ Photo credit Yurgenphogen, CC BY 3.0. In the early 1870s, Frederick Lambart, 8th Earl of Cavan, bought 1,900 acres around the village. He built a hunting lodge. In 1888 his widow sold the estate to Agnes MacDonnell. Six years later, in October 1894, Mrs MacDonnell's employee James Lynchehaun set fire to Valley House ...

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Image: Yurgenphogen | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/gc8g-t-in-an-tseanbhaile-the-attack-at-valley-house.mp3 0:06 3 full Tóin an tSeanbhaile: Where the Liverworts Live https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile/ Photo credit Michelle Owner of the Squishy from Denver, CC BY 2.0. Tóin an tSeanbhaile is the only place in Ireland where the liverwort Leiocolea gillmannii has ever been recorded. The machair near Loch Dubh, a rare Atlantic grassland that forms only where wind, sand, and grazing strike a particular balance, is protected as a Special Area of Con...

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Image: Michelle Owner of the Squishy from Denver | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/gc8g-t-in-an-tseanbhaile-where-the-liverworts-live.mp3 0:06 4 full Tóin an tSeanbhaile: Birds, Mammals, and the Open Sea https://qualla.com/toin-an-tseanbhaile/ Photo credit Yurgenphogen, Public domain. Off Ridge Point, basking sharks pass through. Whales and porpoises are commonly sighted. The shoreline below is a directory of seabirds: cormorants and shags drying their wings on the rocks, oystercatchers stabbing at the wrack, common, Arctic, and Sandwich terns wheeling in summ...

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Image: Yurgenphogen | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/toin-an-tseanbhaile-wp/gc8g-t-in-an-tseanbhaile-birds-mammals-and-the-open-sea.mp3 0:06 5 full