Coolafancy, Cúl na Fuinse, Co. Wicklow

A scattered farming townland in the south Wicklow foothills, between Tinahely and Carnew, on the edge of the old Coolattin estate.

Coolafancy - Cúl na Fuinse, the recess of the ash-tree - is a dispersed rural townland in the south Wicklow hills, in the civil parish of Crosspatrick and the barony of Shillelagh. It sits roughly between Tinahely and Carnew, beside its near-neighbour Coolboy, near the R748. On maps the area is often marked Crosspatrick. There is no main street to speak of. What there is: St Mary's National School - the only primary school for miles, taking in children from Coolboy, Hillbrook, Coolroe and Cummer - a Roman Catholic church, an old graveyard, and the farmland that holds it all together.

The history here is estate history. For the nineteenth century this was Wentworth-FitzWilliam land, part of the vast Coolattin estate that covered close to a fifth of County Wicklow and held over twenty thousand tenants. During the Great Famine and the decade after it, Earl FitzWilliam ran an assisted-emigration scheme: between 1847 and 1856 more than six thousand of his Wicklow tenants were paid to sail for Canada, most of them to Quebec. The estate ledgers recorded every name, age and departure, which is why Coolafancy and the townlands around it turn up in family-history searches from Ontario to New Brunswick far more often than any visitor turns up in person.

Be honest about what this is. Coolafancy is a place to drive through, not a place with amenities laid on for you. The nearest pint with a name worth knowing is The Dying Cow at Stranakelly, a famous one-room pub on the Wicklow Way a few miles north toward Shillelagh. The nearest spread of shops, bars and food is Tinahely or Carnew. What Coolafancy gives you is a quiet corner of the FitzWilliam country with big mountain views, and a walk up Annagh Hill if the weather holds.