Crew, County Antrim

Background

The townland of Crew contains in the south-east Crew Hill (200m), the highest point in the parish of Glenavy, approximately three miles south-east of Glenavy village.  The wide view from ‘the Crew-hill’ was described in 1814: ‘Lough Neagh, Loughbeg, Ram’s Island, Shane’s Castle, Langford Lodge; part of the counties of Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Monaghan, Louth, Antrim and Down; also the towns of Moira, Dungannon, Charlemont, Stewartstown, Lurgan and Hillsborough’ (Shaw Mason’s Par. Sur. ii 235).  The hill of Craeb Telcha (modernised as Craobh Thulcha) was the site of two famous battles between the rival peoples of Uí Néill and Ulaid in AD 1003 and 1099.  Both times the Ulaid were defeated, and in 1099, to emphasise their conquest, the Uí Néill party cut down the sacred tree which grew the on the hill (AFM).  The Ulaid later, in AD 1111, felled the trees at the Uí Néill inauguration site of Tullaghoge across Lough Neagh, near Cookstown (AFM).  In the section Names of Townlands in the Parochial Survey, Crew was explained as Crubh, ‘the form of a horse’s hoof’ (Shaw Mason’s Par. Sur. ii 273), but this is clearly wrong, given the information above.  The place-name has been studied in detail by Deirdre Flanagan (1970).  The old Irish spelling Craeb Telcha was also mentioned in an itinerary to significant places in an early Ulster cycle tale called Immaccallam in dá Thuarad, ‘Colloquy of the two Sages’, which describes the debate at Navan Fort /Emain Macha between two poets Néde and Ferchertne over who should be the chief poet of Ireland after Néde's father's death.(Stokes 1905, 10 $5). References on maps of the plantation period to Knockcruhollogh ‘hill of Cru-hollogh’ establish the link between the Irish name and Crew Hill, which was still locally believed to be the inauguration site for the ‘Kings of Ulster’ (Flanagan 1970, 29-32).  The townland of Crew Park in the neighbouring parish of Ballinderry borders the townland of Crew on the west and appears to be named from it. 

(LNP 30)

References

Additional Information

Historical name form

Barony

Massereene Upper

Parish

Glenavy

Parish in 1851

Glenavy

Townland

None

Place name ID

6170

Place name type

T