Spelled Skeheenaranky in the 1851 Index of Townlands, today it is rendered Skeheenarinky, and is such in P.W. Joyce's Irish Names of Places (1869). Joyce informs that it is derived from Sceithin an Rinceadh ("the little bush of the dancing"), adding ". . . the bush no doubt marking the trysting-place, under which sat the musician, surrounded by merry juveniles". This is in the Co Tipperary parish of Templetenny, and part of its "meares and bounds", given in Volume 1 of the Co Tipperary books of the Civil Survey is ".. . and from thence by a remarcable thorne tree called Skaghnagullogillagh ...". One might interestingly speculate the Irish from which this derived, but how it was "remarcable" is a mystery.
The current Ordnance Survey map shows Galtee Castle in the townland of Skeheenaranky, 900 feet up on the southern slopes of the Galtee Mountains. Here in 1876, according to Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards, on 13,260 acres lived Nathaniel Buckley. Nathaniel, with a Manchester address, also had 7,563 acres in adjoining Co Limerick. This land, once part of the Kingston estate, passed into the hands of a group called the Irish Land Company in 1852, one of whom was Manchester millionaire, Nathaniel Buckley. Buckley was of Jewish background, and if not bearing the English Buckley surname may have adopted it.
In 1853 he bought out the others in the group and built "a charming residence which he called Galtee Castle, two miles north of Skeheenanrinky cross-roads .. .". The castle was demolished in 1940, and the stones were used in the building of a new church at Glanworth, Co Cork. The fascinating history of Galtee Castle, its owners and their agents, is told in Turbulent Days Beneath Galteemore by Sean Ua Cearnaigh in the 1993 Tipperary Historical Journal. There were two other small Buckley holdings in Co Cork, and single and double-digit Buckley holdings in counties Dublin, Kilkenny, Offaly, Wicklow, Tipperary and Down.
Almost certainly, most, if not all, of the 82 Buckley families listed in Griffith's Primary Valuation as living in eight of Co Tipperary's 12 baronies, owned not a single acre. The greatest concentration of the name was the 23 families in Cahir and the 12 in Toem.
The English surname Buckley "buck (male deer) clearing/hegoat field", is not represented in Ireland to any great extent, but was used as the gaelicized form of O Buachalla. This derives from buachaill, now taken to mean "boy", though it originally meant "herdsman". Now most common in the southern half of the country, this was a sept of Offaly. Variously spelled Buckley, Bookeley, Bohely, Bouhilly, Bulkely, Bulkly and Bulkelh in the 1659 Census of Ireland, this surname was listed among the principal Irish surnames in the Co Offaly barony of Ballycowan, and the Tipperary barony of Iffa & Offa. Persons so-named were tituladoes in Dublin city; in Brownsford, Co Kilkenny; in Louth and the city of Drogheda, and one was bailiff of Dundalk. Richard Buckley was a Co Dublin commissioner for the Pollmoney Ordinances of 1660 and 1661.
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/ Annals of the Four Masters notes the death in 1090 of Cian O Buachalla, successor of Cainneach in Cianachta (the Co Derry barony of Keenaght). Allowing that earlier records frequently attached the "o" to Irish surnames, we wonder was Oboyghil this same surname. Roger Oboyghil, with two others, was charged at Cork in 1311 with being common robbers and incendiaries. Among the jurors at an inquisition at Clonmel, Co Tipperary, April 5th, 1553, regarding the theft of eight goats, was Matthew O'Bwaghly.
Earlier measures of land included Burgage Acres, Great Acres, Irish Acres, Plantation Acres, Clanwillaim Acres and Cunningham Acres, but a 1782 lease in The Inchiquin Manuscripts concerning the land of Cahersherkin in the Co Clare parish of Clooney, has a saving clause "for all Mines, Minerals and Shea's Acres". James Buckley was one of the leaseholders. In 1703 Robert Buckly was one of the residents at the west side of St Mary Street, Clonmel. Among the modern nobility of Tipperary, O Hart's Irish Pedigrees lists "the Buckleys, viscounts of Cashel".
Current telephone directories list 1,784 Buckley entries south of the Border, of which 1,300 are south of a line from Galway to Wicklow. O Buachalla is listed 11 times. North of the Border there are 72 Buckley entries.