Before 1600 the land belonged to the great O'Neill clan. After the Plantation, it was granted to the Abercorn family and the land divided into small farms. Over the ensuing centuries the farmers created well-run and profitable mixed farms.

At the beginning of the twentieth century came another great sea-change: families at last had the chance to own the land that their forebears had, as tenants, tilled for generations. If anything, changes through the twentieth century, both on and off the farms, have been greater than those of the previous two hundred years. Some farms expanded, some stayed the same size: what links them all is that the family unit remained as the cement that held them together and bound them to the land.