GLENANNE Glenanne lies 6.2 km from Markethill.
Glenanne is designated today as a hamlet. (Armagh Area Plan 2004: Armagh District Council Area)
"Glenanne is one of the handsomest villages in the county. It is situated on the side of a hill overlooking the glen, and forms part of the property owned by Messer's. George Gray & sons. The workers in the mills of Messer's. Gray live in various parts of the immediate district, as well as at Glenanne. In the village a library and reading room, established by Miss Gray, are popular with the workers, who contributed 2d.per month each towards maintenance. The land of neighbourhood is fair for oats, potatoes and flax. Many of the farmers have dairies. The butter is, for the greater part, sent to the market in 'bricks.' An ancient earthen fort, near the village, occupied by Mr John Patterson, has been turned into an apple-orchard. Glenanne is two and a half miles west by south from the loughgilly rail way station, which is twelve miles rail from Armagh" (unreferenced quotation from a report on Glenanne in 1892, cited on Mossfield Community Association's website)
McKay, P A Dictionary of Ulster Place-names (Belfast, 1999) notes:
Parish of Loughgilly, Barony of Orior Lower
The name Glenanne signifies simply 'Anne's Glen' and was originally the name of the house of George Gray who named it after his wife Eliza Anne, daughter of Rev.James Hewry of Corlough, County Cavan whom he married in 1808. The village was founded by William Atkinson who established extensive cotton and calico mills here about 1818, in the townland of Lisdrumchor Lower.
(Glen Anne, 1828)
