Ordnance Survey Letters by John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry, 1839

Parish of Drumline (a)

This Parish is bounded on the north by the Parish of Tomfinlough; on the west by Clonloaghan; on the east by Feenagh and Bunratty and on the south by the River Shannon.

This Parish is called in the original language Drom Lín which sounds as if it meant Dorsum Lini (so called perhaps from its remarkable fertility in producing flax) but no original Irish Authority for the spelling of the name has been yet discovered. There is another place in the County of Donegal near Lifford, called Drumline, but the original Irish spelling is Druim Lighean, which does not mean Flax Hill, but the Hill of Lighean, a man’s name.

The old Church of Drumline is nearly destroyed. It was seventy two feet in length and twenty one in breadth. The west gable is destroyed down to the foundation. The south wall is also destroyed except a fragment of six feet in length and about twelve feet in height attached to the east gable. The window in the east gable is totally destroyed, there being a breach in the middle of that gable from the top to the bottom. Of the north wall a portion about forty feet in length, nine in height and two feet six inches in thickness remains, but it contains no doorway or window. Parts of it look ancient.

About a quarter of a mile to the east of this Church there is a Castle of the same name in good preservation. It is set down in the College List of the Castles of the County of Clare as “the Castle of Dromleyne belonging to Moriertagh O’Brien.”

There is no well in this Parish bearing the name of a Saint, nor is there any Patron Saint now remembered for it.

The Castle of Baile na nGaibhne or Smithstown in this Parish is mentioned in William O’Lionain’s List as having been built by Shane, son of Sheedy Macnamara. (It is set down in the College List as belonging to Shane O’Mulchonry).