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Celebrating Ulster's Townlands
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| 17. Ancient Buildings in Place Names | |||
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Promontory castle at Dunseverick Co. Antrim: EHS
Fort at Rathtrillick Co. Armagh: EHS
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Many townlands, and indeed larger areas, have been named from ancient dwellings within them, such as Irish dún meaning “hill fort”, ráth and lios meaning “ringfort”. Dunseverick, “Sobhairce’s fort”, on a promontory on the north coast was named after an early chieftain and long considered to be the northernmost point of Ireland. Many of these sites were later used by the Normans to build castles such as Dundrum “fort of the ridge” Co. Down, or Dunluce which appears to mean “hillfort of the fort” on the north Antrim coast. Dunmisk “Mescán’s hill fort” in Tyrone seems in fact to have been a religious site, named after St Patrick’s brewer. In the case of Downpatrick the saint’s name is a late addition, and the hillfort may be the site next to rather than under the cathedral. |
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| A
well-preserved ringfort which gave its name to the townland is Rathtrillick
“ringfort of the stone tomb” in the far South-West of Co. Armagh.
However the site of the “trillick”
is now a mystery. Rathfriland
“Fraoile’s fort” is now under the town in Co. Down.
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| In
the north the most common term is lios,
and in any towns as well as townlands containing Lis- as part of their name. In Fermanagh we have Lisbellaw,
lios béal átha “fort at the approach to a ford”, and Lisnaskea “fort of the shield”, since the mound on which the Maguire
chieftains were inaugurated was called Sciath
“shield”. It is in the townland of Corrnashee
“quarter of the fairy mound”. The first part of the name Lisburn seems to come from the fort called Lisnagarvey “fort of the gamblers” which named a townland
included in the modern town, but burn
is unexplained. Lisburn
suffered two major fires, but since it is beside the Lagan the word may
be Scots burn “stream”. |
Inauguration mound of Corrnashee at Lisnaskea Co. Fermanagh: EHS Ulster Placenames Society Northern Ireland UPNS |
Map c. 1800 of Lissanoure House and crannog, Castletown, Loughguile Co. Antrim: PRONI D 1062/2/4 |
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The
forts of Lisleitrim “fort
of the grey hill”, Co. Armagh, and the Macartney castle called Lissanoure “little dun fort” at Castletown by Loughguile “the narrow lake”, Co. Antrim, looked out on an
artificial island or crannóg
once used as a place of retreat.
They were often twinned with a stronghold on the shore as at the castle
of Monea (“champion’s
plain”) in Fermanagh and were still important in 16th century.
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Monea Castle and crannog Co. Fermanagh: W.A. Green UFTM
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The
crannog in Loughguile was shown on John Speed’s map of Ulster in AD
1610. The illustration of the map opposite shows other crannog sites
coloured in. |
John Speed's map of Ulster 1610 (crannogs marked)
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