Old Map of County Leitrim in 1685 by Petty - Carrick-on-Shannon, Jamestown, Down Survey

This detailed political and physical map of County Leitrim was produced in 1685 by Sir William Petty, based on his Down Survey of Ireland, the first detailed land survey carried out on a national scale anywhere in the world, completed between 1656 and 1658. Petty was a remarkable figure in his own right, a surgeon-general, professor of anatomy at Oxford, inventor and economist whose statistical work later earned him recognition as one of the founders of political economy.

Set within the province of Connacht and bordered by Donegal, Sligo, Roscommon and Cavan, County Leitrim is recorded here in fine detail, from the county town of Carrick-on-Shannon and the plantation settlement of Jamestown to the town of Leitrim itself. Smaller towns including Ballinamore, Drumshanbo, Mohill, Manorhamilton, Kinlough, Dromahair, Keshcarrigan, Drumkeerin, Carrigallen and Cloone are all marked, while roads, bridges, hills, forests, rivers and loughs are rendered pictorially across the county, alongside the parish divisions that structured the land in the late seventeenth century.

This map makes a fitting housewarming, wedding, retirement or Christmas gift for anyone with Leitrim roots or an interest in Irish history and surveying, and it also suits a distinctive corporate gift. The fine engraved detail of Petty's 1685 survey has been carefully restored for a crisp, richly detailed print.