Official Land Registry Document
Instrument Copy
Instrument Copy for Registered Land in County Kerry
Quick Answer
An Instrument Copy for County Kerry land is a copy of a document lodged with the Land Registry — a transfer, charge, covenant or grant of a right of way. The folio records that the burden exists and gives its number; the instrument is where the terms are actually written. In County Kerry, where mountain grazing and turbary attach to holdings as rights rather than ground, the deeds behind them are what state how much either is worth.
A Part III entry on a County Kerry folio tells you that something affects the land without telling you what it requires. The Property Registration Authority retains the document behind every such entry, and the Instrument Copy is how it is read.
Key Facts
County
Kerry
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What Is This Document
An Instrument Copy is a copy of a document actually lodged with the Land Registry — a transfer, a charge, a deed granting a right of way, a deed imposing covenants, a vesting order. When such a document is lodged and registered, the folio records that the interest exists and gives the instrument its own number. The document itself is retained, and the Instrument Copy is how you read it.
That division of labour is the whole point of the product. A folio will tell you that a right of way exists over your land, and it will identify the instrument that created it. It will not tell you how wide the right of way is, where exactly it runs, who is responsible for maintaining the surface, whether it is limited to agricultural use, or whether it may be used by anyone other than the owner of the dominant land. Every one of those questions is answered in the instrument and nowhere else.
County Kerry is mountain and peninsula country, and its holdings characteristically carry rights over land they do not own. Grazing on the uplands of Iveragh, Dingle and the Reeks, and turbary on the bogs, attach to farms below as entitlements created by grant. The instruments behind them define what may be turned out, where, and in what quantity turf may be cut — and those documents are the only place any of that is stated.
Ordering therefore usually starts from the folio rather than from the instrument. The Part III entry gives the instrument number, and that number is what identifies the document to be copied. If you do not have it, a folio search establishes it first, and it is entirely normal to order the two together — the folio to find out what burdens exist, the instrument to find out what each of them actually says.
Which Document Do I Need
Different questions need different documents:
| Situation | Recommended Document |
|---|---|
| Find out who owns a property in County Kerry | Folio Search |
| See what burdens are registered against it | Folio Search |
| Read what a burden actually permits or requires | Instrument Copy — — this page |
| Prove the register entry to a lender or court | Certified Folio |
| Prove the registered extent | Certified Map |
What Information Is Included
The full text of the instrument as lodged and registered
The parties to it, and the date it was executed and registered
The operative provisions — what was granted, transferred, charged or covenanted
Any plan or schedule annexed to the document
Conditions, reservations and exceptions attaching to what was granted
The instrument number and the folio it is registered against
Why People Order
Quantifying a mountain grazing entitlement
The deed defines the share and the ground it may be exercised over.
Checking a turbary grant
Entitlements to cut turf are created by deed and the terms govern where and how much.
Reading a right of way to a hill holding
Access over difficult ground was granted formally where it was granted at all.
Investigating a covenant on a tourist or coastal property
The folio records that a covenant exists; the instrument states what it restricts.
Examining a charge before redemption
The deed sets out what is secured and on what terms.
Advising on a farm purchase
A hill holding's value frequently depends on the rights attaching to it.
Acting on a family transfer
Earlier transfers set out reservations that bind later owners.
Checking a wayleave for services
Utility wayleaves are registered and their terms are in the deed.
Reconstructing how a burden arose
Researchers work from the instruments rather than the register entries.
Preparing to answer requisitions
A purchaser's solicitor will raise the terms of every substantive burden, and having the instruments for a County Kerry property to hand at the outset shortens that exchange considerably rather than leaving it to run over several weeks.
Settling an argument from the document
Where neighbours disagree about what a registered right permits, the instrument is the only authoritative answer, and it is frequently shorter and clearer than either party expects.
Checking what a burden means before committing
Establishing what a registered entry actually requires costs very little compared with discovering it after contracts have been exchanged.
Real World Use Cases
Solicitors
Practitioners in County Kerry read grazing and turbary grants regularly, because on a hill holding those rights are frequently a large part of what is being sold and their extent appears nowhere except in the deeds.Farmers and Landowners
What may be grazed on the mountain and where turf may be cut are matters settled at grant. Neighbouring holdings hold different entitlements over the same ground, and each is governed by its own instrument.Home Buyers
Coastal and rural sites here carry covenants and granted access whose terms determine what may be built and how the property may be used.Title Researchers
Kerry holdings frequently combine several layers of grant over generations, and reconstructing them is instrument work.Lenders and Their Advisers
Where a holding's value rests substantially on grazing entitlements, the deeds establishing them are what a valuer and a lender need.Title Researchers and Surveyors
Professional researchers working on County Kerry property use instrument copies constantly, because the register is an index to the documents rather than a substitute for them. Reconstructing how a burden arose, what was intended by it, and how it interacts with later dealings is work that can only be done from the instruments themselves, and the folio entries are simply the route to finding which documents matter.
Land Registry Context
County Kerry is dominated by mountain, and its instrument record is dominated by the rights that mountain supports.
The peninsulas of Iveragh and Dingle, and the high ground of the Reeks and the ranges behind them, carry extensive commonage and hill grazing. Very little of that ground is owned outright by the farms that use it. Instead, entitlements attach to holdings in the valleys below — rights to turn out a stated number of animals, over particular ground, sometimes at particular times of year. Every one of those entitlements was created by an instrument, and the instrument is where the extent is stated. The folio records the existence of the right and nothing else about it.
Turbary works identically. Grants of the right to cut turf define a bank, commonly a quantity, and sometimes a purpose or a period. Because bogs have been worked for generations under grants of varying age and precision, what a particular holding is actually entitled to cut is regularly a live question, and it is answered from the document.
Tourism has added a further layer over the last half century. Coastal and scenic ground has been sold, subdivided and developed, and the transfers doing so imposed covenants — restrictions on further building, on use, on the appearance of structures — that continue to bind.
Access across upland ground is granted formally where it is granted at all, and a right of way registered over open mountain may exist without any made surface on it, so what the deed permits and what can physically be used are separate questions.
In a county where so much of a holding's worth lies in rights over other people's land, the instrument record is not supplementary to the register. It is where the value is described.
For anyone working on a Kerry title, that is worth putting to a client at the outset, because a hill farm whose folio looks modest may carry entitlements worth more than the ground it names, and the only way to find out is to read the grants.
Common Mistakes
Expecting the folio to explain its own burdens
This is the gap the product fills. The folio records that a right of way, covenant or charge exists and gives its instrument number. The terms — width, route, permitted use, maintenance, duration — are in the instrument, and reading the folio entry alone tells you almost nothing about what you are actually bound by.
Ordering without the instrument number
Each entry in Part III refers to its own instrument, and a folio in County Kerry can carry several. Ordering by folio number alone risks receiving a copy of the wrong document, so the Part III entry is what identifies which one is wanted — /folio-search/kerry/.
Assuming everything affecting the land was lodged
Only registered dealings produce instruments. Informal agreements between neighbours, rights acquired by long occupation and arrangements never reduced to a registered deed generate no document to copy, and their absence from the register is not evidence that they do not bind the land.
Assuming a grazing entitlement is unlimited
Grants of hill grazing specify what may be turned out and over what ground, and neighbouring holdings hold different rights over the same mountain. The folio records that the entitlement exists and nothing about its size.
Overlooking covenants on coastal ground
Land sold and subdivided during the growth of tourism was frequently transferred subject to restrictions on further building and use. Those covenants remain registered and the deed sets out what they prohibit.
When Not Sufficient
An Instrument Copy gives you the text of a document lodged and registered against County Kerry land. It does not establish current ownership, show the registered extent, carry certification under seal, or reach anything that was never lodged — informal arrangements, rights acquired by long occupation, or deeds relating to unregistered land held at the Registry of Deeds. Grazing as actually practised, the current condition of a turf bank and any commonage arrangements operating outside the register all fall beyond the instrument record.
How To Order
The most useful thing to send is the folio number with its county and the instrument number from the Part III entry you are interested in. That identifies the exact document without ambiguity.
If you do not have the instrument number, send the address and Eircode, or the folio number and county, and say which burden you are asking about — a right of way, a charge, a covenant. Our team locates the entry, confirms which instrument it refers to and comes back to you before anything is prepared.
Say whether the right concerns mountain grazing, turbary or access, since the three produce quite different grants in this county.
Turnaround & Delivery
Delivery time:
The instrument is supplied as an electronic copy, sent to the email address you provide, so nothing waits on the post. Each order is checked against the entry you identified before it is sent.
Where the instrument cannot be located from the details supplied, where the County Kerry land turns out to be unregistered so that no lodged instrument exists, or where the burden you are asking about arises otherwise than by registered deed, we contact you rather than sending something that does not answer your question.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the folio not already show what the right of way allows?
No. The folio records that the right exists and gives the instrument number. The width, route, permitted use, maintenance obligations and any conditions attaching to it are set out in the instrument that created it, and that document is what has to be read.
How is the instrument copy delivered?
As an electronic copy sent to the email address you give us, within. Each order is checked against the Part III entry you identified before it is sent, so you receive the document you actually asked about.
How many sheep can I graze on the mountain?
The grant that created your entitlement states it. Hill grazing rights are quantified in the instrument rather than on the folio, and holdings sharing the same mountain frequently hold materially different entitlements.
Where exactly can I cut turf?
The turbary grant defines the bank and commonly a quantity, and sometimes a purpose. None of that appears on the folio, so the deed is the only place the extent of the right is set out.
Do I need the instrument number to order?
It helps considerably, but it is not essential. If you send the folio number and county and say which burden you are asking about, our team locates the entry and identifies the instrument first — or you can order a folio search to obtain the numbers — /folio-search/kerry/.
What restrictions apply to my coastal site?
Where ground was subdivided and sold during the growth of tourism, the transfer frequently imposed covenants restricting further building, use or the appearance of structures. Those remain registered and the instrument states their terms.
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Property Records Editorial Team
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