The population of the island had surpassed the 1600 mark by 1841, a density of one person per hectare.By 1851, the number had fallen to 845, and to as low as 494 by 1871, before recovering somewhat and levelling out at about 600 for the next half century.   The population of the island today is 154.

     In 1897, Charles Browne, MD, conducted an anthropological survey on Clare Island and Inishturk. He expresses great urgency in his documentation.The island had been bought by the Congested Districts Board two years earlier. Through the work of the Board yet another change transformed the island's landscape and way of life.

When they took over the management of the island, four fifths of the total area was occupied by 98 tenant farmers, (although only 68 tenancies were recorded on the previous landlord's rental-a consequence of the ruinous practice of subdivision).  Rundale, as this type of landapportionment is known, was prevalent throughout the west of Ireland. A man would have as many as thirty different holdings , sometimes as small as an eighth of an acre, scattered throughout the island.

In 1892, a preliminary report for the Congested Districts Board was conducted by Major Ruttledge-Fair. He describes the existing conditions and makes recommendations for improvements should the Board acquire the property.The population of the island at the time was 692. He describes the land as being of good quality, and that a superior class of both cattle and sheep are reared here than on any of the other islands. An average holding would have three acres under cultivation in the following way: 1.25 acres under oats, the same amount under potatoes and half an acre in meadow.

"The people in this district take three meals daily throughout the year, "   Major Ruttledge-Fair writes:

"Breakfast: Tea and flour bread;
Dinner:  Potatoes and fish or eggs, some persons take tea also;
Supper: Potatoes and milk. Some families use tea and bread for dinner instead of potatoes but in such cases potatoes are used for breakfast. Indian meal is substituted for potatoes when the latter are exhausted."

     When the Board acquired the island it immediately set about re-apportioning or "striping" the island into 77 new farms, separating the tillage from the pasture land with a five-mile-long dry stone wall, known as the Boundary Wall, averaging 5ft6in in height. About fifty miles of lesser walls and mearings were built to mark the boundaries of the newly designated farms, running over existing and in some places ancient lazybed field systems which followed the contours of the land.

The island assumed a much more orderly appearance. In 1897 there were only five houses into which the cattle and pigs were not taken every night.

The Board assumed the function of landlord for the period of re-organization- about four years in all, during which rents were duly paid in full by the tenants. Purchase annuities were introduced, replacing the old system of paying rents, the sums advanced for this purpose repayable over a term of 68.5 years at an interest rate of 3.25%. An important stipulation was the prohibition of subdividing.

     Entering the twentieth century, Clare Islanders were landowners of their own holdings. The Board instituted a number of "works". In addition to wall-building, islanders worked on  road construction and improvements. A fishing industry was established.The famous Lawrence collection photographs show extensive herring barrels at the quay. Girls from as far away as Donegal were employed, in addition to islanders, fish gutting. The herring industry collapsed when the fish failed to return to the area in the mid 1940's.