Placenames Project
The Ballynakill Placenames Project records the local placenames of Ballynakill Civil Parish, townland by townland. It focuses on field names and other minor names that often don't appear on modern maps, such as hills, wells, bogs, bridges, and crossroads. It also records old houses and the families who lived in them.
Most of these names have never been written down. They are passed on by word of mouth, and they hold information about the landscape, local history, families, land use, and the Irish language. As time goes on, many of them are being forgotten, and this project aims to record them before more are lost. Similar projects have been carried out in other parts of Ireland, including Kilkenny, Meath, and Westmeath, with Meitheal Logainm.ie acting as a central repository for local names collected from across the country. This project is doing the same for the civil parish of Ballynakill.
The civil parish covers part or all of three modern church parishes: Ballinakill-Derrybrien, Woodford-Looscaun, and Abbey-Duniry. The project began in Ballinakill, but the Woodford-Looscaun area is being recorded by another group, and both sets of records will be brought together here.
Townlands
Ballinakill-Derrybrien
- Acres
- Allygola
- Allykeolaun
- Ballinlough
- Ballycorban
- Ballydaly
- Ballyglass
- Ballynagar
- Barratoor
- Burroge
- Callatra
- Cappaghcon
- Cappaghcon East
- Cappaghcon West
- Cappaghconbeg
- Carrowcrin
- Carrowroe
- Cartron South
- Clooneen
- Cuilleendaeagh
- Cullenagh
- Drum
- Drumkeary East
- Drumkeary West
- Garraunphaudeen
- Gortnakilla
- Inchy
- Knockadrum
- Knockaundarragh
- Knockdrummore
- Knockmoyle East
- Knockmoyle West
- Knockroe
- Kyleaglannawood
- Kylenagappa
- Larraga
- Lecarrow North
- Lecarrow South
- Liss
- Loughpark
- Mountainpark
- Moyglass
- Ross
- Rosseeshal
- Silverstream
- Slatefield
- Tonroe
- Tooreen North
- Tulla
What is on each townland page
Each townland page has a short narrative history (population and housing figures where available, stories of local families, points of interest), an interactive map, plus three tables:
- PlacenamesFields, lakes, hills, ringforts, and any other named feature, with a type and notes on meaning, pronunciation, or location
- HousesOld houses and the families who lived there historically (current occupants aren't recorded). Where a house had several families over time, the name shown is the oldest recorded, with later families noted below it
- BuildingsOther structures that aren't houses, such as forges or mills
Placename types follow the standard list used by Meitheal Logainm.ie, the national community placenames project.
Collecting the names
This is primarily an oral history project. Most of the information was gathered by inviting people from each area to come and share the names they knew, with Ordnance Survey maps projected on screen. In some cases, where people couldn't attend, we visited them to record their knowledge.
Information was recorded as told, with limited cross-checking, and is supplemented by historical maps and records such as census returns and Griffith's Valuation where useful. Spellings and details may vary between contributors, some areas are better covered than others, and locations are sometimes approximate. There are bound to be mistakes, and if you spot one we'd be glad to hear from you.
Some of the names are in Irish. These were written down phonetically, as we heard them pronounced. Where the correct Irish spelling was obvious we have used it; otherwise the phonetic spelling is given.
More than 125 people have contributed so far, we are very grateful to them all — see the list of contributors.