Up to the turn of the 20 th century practically all Kilmaine land was owned in about 25 large estates by

landlords of mainly Anglo Irish background. About two thirds of the land was rented to tenants and

the remaining one third was retained by the landlords for their own use or rented to graziers on the

11-month system. Graziers were large drystock farmers who rented pasture land. This system of

land tenure had lasted for so long that no one could envisage it changing. But in about 20 years the

ownership of all Kilmaine land transferred from the landlords to the occupying tenants. Some

landlords remained put and continued to farm much reduced acreages but most departed mainly to

England or to various countries of the British empire.

On some estates, land reform was preceded by agrarian activity against landlords and graziers

including driving their stock off their land, damage to crops and structures, burning of buildings and

death threats. On other estates, tenants took a more constructive approach by forming Co-operative

Farming Societies to buy out the estate with a loan from the National Land Bank. The predominant

pathway of land reform in Kilmaine involved either the Congested Districts Board (CDB) or the

Estates Commissioners / Land Commission purchasing entire estates including the landlords’

demesnes and the grazing farms and ‘striping’ them amongst the existing tenants.

The tenanted areas of Kilmaine estates were severely congestion (too many small uneconomic

holdings) but congestion was even worse elsewhere so a number of untenanted Kilmaine estates

were reserved for migrants from severely congested areas elsewhere in Mayo.

This book in three sections, 27 chapters and 357 pages describes historical land tenure in Kilmaine.

Each landed estate is described showing the townlands comprising it, listing the tenants who farmed

the land over the years and the outcome of land reform. Finally, the lives and family history of some

of the more prominent landlords are profiled.