Crawford Clan prepare to Gather

FOR centuries past and up to the present day, a wide variety of common interests exist between Ireland and Scotland.

In sport, there are the field games of shinty and hurling, while in the cultural area our Irish language and their Gaelic share a comfortable mix. A long tradition has grown up of people from the north and, particularly, the north-west part of Ireland emigrating to Scotland fully and partly, to gain employment.

However, the project, Clare Crawfords and Relations Gathering, celebrates ancestors who came in the opposite direction, from Scotland to Ulster. The Crawford surname is of Scottish origin, being traced to the upper Clyde River Valley in Lanarkshire.

As a surname, it can be followed back to the late 1000s, when the Barony of Crawford is noted in various records and it gives its name to the extensive 100 square mile parish of Crawford in the extreme south of Lanarkshire.

Through emigration since the early 1700s, the Crawfords spread to Ulster and abroad to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Some travelled south and settled in counties including Galway, Kerry, Limerick and Clare.

The Clare settlers were among the Ultonians of the Mount Callan area, as recorded by John Lloyd in his tour of Clare in 1780. The surname Crawford is now relatively rare in Clare but was once much more numerous, particularly in the west of the county.

The Clare Crawfords and Relations Gathering organising committee will convene a special get-together on Sunday, June 30, in association with the national Gathering programme. The preparatory work has involved extensive research into the Crawford ancestry and genealogy within Clare and beyond, the tracing of relations and descendants, making personal contacts and exploring shared interests.

There will be a central theme to the Gathering event, which will highlight the genealogy and history of the Clare Crawfords and their descendants. Clare being Clare, the event will also have a strong social and cultural dimension, with traditional music, song and dance, all designed to deliver a full programme of entertainment.

The event will kick off on Wednesday, June 26 with a cycle commencing in Scotland at the ancient Crawford Castle in the village of Crawford, Lanarkshire. A 90-mile scenic route will take the cyclists from the village to the ferry at Cairnryan.

They will continue through Northern Ireland and arrive on Sunday, June 30, at Clohanmore, Miltown Malbay, the townland where the furthest back Crawford person in Clare can be traced.

The organisers envisage this part of the Gathering event as symbolically re-enacting the trek that the Crawford ancestors undertook before settling on the foothills of Mount Callan.

On Saturday, February 16 last, four of the organisers, Mary Crawford, Walter Hunt, Susan Crawford and Christy Killeen, headed to Scotland to carry out a test run for the cyclists. This took them from the ferry port of Cairnryan through the scenic snow-capped mountains and broad expanse of valleys that adorn the route to Crawford village.

The road itself challenges drivers and cyclists alike, as it finds its way through the mountains with its continuous chain of snake-like bends.

Along the way the sparseness of residential homes is remarkable and is broken only by quaint villages and towns, such as Glenluce, Newton Stuart, Gallowway Forest Park, Thornhill, Monaive and Crawford. The village is located deep in the Clyde Valley region, 47 miles south of Glasgow.

The group visited the old Crawford Castle. Like many surnames, Crawford has a variety of spellings but ‘ford’ comes to mind easily when looking at the concourse of the river and the sheer necessity for getting across it in olden times.

It is envisaged that battles were fought adjacent to the castle and that the root word ‘krew’ (Strathclyde Celtic), meaning ‘blood’, may have given the term ‘the ford of blood’ – hence the surname Crawford. Another likely root is the Aryan word ‘kar’, meaning curve, thus giving ‘the ford at the bend’ – of which there are many.

Crawford Castle, also known as Lindsay Tower, was once the seat of the Lindsay family. During the 13th century, one of Sir John Crawford’s two daughters married David Lindsay, the ancestor of the Earl of Crawford. The castle is now in ruin but it was a formidable fortress in its time. It stands on the north bank of the River Clyde in a hillock and moat position, guarding the approach to the Clyde Valley from England.

It is a stone structure dating from the mid-12th century and succeeds an earlier earthwork castle. It was described in the 18th century by Hamilton of Wishaw as “a square court with much lodging in it”.

Later, in the 19th century, its roof was blown off by one of the tenants of the farm as an act of vandalism. Archaeological excavations revealed a Roman Fort existed at this site between 80 and 170 AD.

More details of the Clare Crawford and Relations Gathering can be accessed at http://www.thegatheringireland.com/Attend-A-Gathering/Individual-Gathering.aspx?eid=543.