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Loop Head / Ceann Léime “headland of (the) leap”
(see logainm.ie #104201)
Date: 09/06/2025
The famous mythological hero Cú Chulainn we mentioned last week is not directly mentioned in the name of any townland in Ireland. However, he is commemorated in many non-administrative placenames. (We usually call these non-administrative placenames minor names even though they can include massive geographical features!)
The first of these minor placenames is the well-known headland in southwest Co. Clare known in English as Loop Head (logainm.ie #104201). The Irish name Ceann Léime “headland of (the) leap” (in reference to a chasm on the coastline) could still be heard from local native speakers well into the 20th century. However, the headland was also well known by the longer name, Léim Chon Culainn “the leap of Cú Chulainn”. One of the earliest attestations in Irish sources is found in the 11th-century Cert Ríg Caisil (‘The Right of the King of Caiseal / Cashel’), which describes the historic district of Corca Bhaiscinn as extending from Léim Chon Culainn to Clarecastle (#1412543) (‘ó tá Lém Chon Culainn co Clár Átha Dá Chara’). It is interesting to note, then, that even the earliest surviving anglicized sources reflect the name Ceann Léime, for example ‘Can Leame’ on Boazio’s map Irlandiæ accvrata descriptio first published in 1599. Curiously, although the modern English name derives from a translation of this Irish form, it is not *Leap Head as we might anticipate, but rather Loop Head. (We will have to leave discussion of this unexpected English form for another day, though it may not be unconnected with the topic of the remainder of this note.)
Cú Chulainn also features in the names of much smaller features, e.g. the two separate cairns just outside the modern Gaeltacht in Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Kerry, both called Cuchullin’s House / Tigh Chú Chulainn (logainm.ie #101129; #1414794), in which the genitive form Chú Chulainn (hypercorrected to ‘…Conchulain’ by John O’Donovan in the Ordnance Survey Namebooks) implies a much later origin than Léim Chon Culainn. He is also commemorated in a number of names found in early Irish literature, some of which were imaginary and all of which are now defunct. We are told that in Binn Éadair / Howth, Co. Dublin, there was a place called Bern Chon Culaind [Bearn Chon Culainn] “the gap of Cú Chulainn”. In Teamhair / Tara, Co. Meath, there were said to be places called Córus Cind Chonchulainn [Córas Cinn Chon Culainn] “the measure of the head of Cú Chulainn”, Láthrach Scéith Con Chulainn [Láithreach Scéith Chon Culainn] “the site of the shield of Cú Chulainn” and Méide Con Chulainn [Méidhe Chon Culainn] “the (decapitated) neck of Cú Chulainn”! (These places in Tara were right beside Ráth Chonchúir Mhic Neasa, named after the king of Ulster whose service Cú Chulainn joined as a youth, as mentioned in a previous note.) In Cú Chulainn’s old stomping-ground of Co. Louth we are told of Echlasc Ech Con Chulainn [Eachlasc Each Con Culainn] “the horse-shelters of Cú Chulainn” near Dún Dealgan / Dundalk and Grellach Con Chulainn [Greallach Chon Culainn] “the miry place of Cú Chulainn” near Baile Átha Fhirdhia / Ardee. (Ardee has its own tragic connections to Cú Chulainn, of course!) (For these and other references to placenames in Irish literature, see DIAS E-Onomasticon – Donnchadh Ó Corráin’s annotated version of Edmund Hogan’s Onomasticon Goedelicum (1910) – and the essential modern series Foclóir Stairiúil Áitainmneacha na Gaeilge / Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames.).
Returning to Ceann Léime “(the) headland of (the) leap”, we find the same placename repeated at a second location further up the west coast in Co. Galway. This example also has a very unexpected English form, namely Slyne Head (logainm.ie #1165703). Again, we find the reasonably accurate anglicized spelling ‘Can Leame’ both on Boazio’s map (see above) and on another roughly contemporary John Speed’s The Province of Connaught with the City of Galway described (c 1610). One of the earliest Irish attestations is ‘Ceann leime’ (1684) in A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught written A.D. 1684 by Roderic O’Flaherty (Ruairí Ó Flaithbheartaigh). It is unclear whether the modern English name Slyne Head is a half-translation of Ceann Léime as *Lem Head, with an intrusive S- giving *Slemhead – note that O’Flaherty gives the English forms ‘Slimhead’ and ‘Slimehead’ (1684) – or whether it is an unconnected name of English origin.
Similarly to Ceann Léime in Co. Clare (formerly called Léim Chon Culainn), this Ceann Léime in Co. Galway was earlier known as Léim Lára “mare’s leap” (see Éamonn Ó Tuathail, ‘Léim Lára’, Éigse VI, pp.155-156; A. B. Taylor, ‘Léim Lára – Ceann Léime’, Éigse IX, pp.30-31). It is remarkable to note that this headland was of such significance to mariners that it appears to be recorded in the Landnámabók – the medieval account of the Viking settlement of Iceland – as Jǫlduhlaup “mare’s leap”. As the first element jalda “mare” seems confined to poetic language, unlike the more common word merr “mare” (see Icelandic English Dictionary, (1962, reprint, Oxford)), Jǫlduhlaup “mare’s leap” appears to have been a carefully made translation. Whatever the case, it is clear that the Old Norse translator of the name had an understanding of Irish.
Of course, this is not the only example of speakers of Old Norse interacting with the Irish placenames they encountered here. The modern English name of Dalkey (logainm.ie #17503) in Co. Dublin is derived from what might be described as an Old Norse calque of the original Irish name Deilginis “thorn-island” in which the Middle Irish elements delg + inis have been replaced by Old Norse dálk + øy. The English name of Ireland’s Eye / Inis Mac Neasáin “the island of the sons of Neasán” (logainm.ie #17542) is from a Norse version of an alternative Irish name for that island, namely Inis Éireann “the island of Éire”, from the female personal name Éire, gen. Éireann (Mid.Ir. Ériu, gen. Érenn). This was incorrectly translated as if it contained a reference to the country-name Éire (see DIAS e-onomasticon s.n. inis érenn). Further examples can be found in Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, ‘L’influence Scandinave sur la Toponymie Irlandaise’, in É. Ridel (ed.), L’Héritage Maritime des Vikings en Europe de l’Ouest (Caen, 2002) pp. 441‒82.
These placenames showing Old Norse interaction with Irish placenames are of particular significance in terms of the linguistic history of Ireland, as they provide evidence for a familiarity of the Irish language among the early Vikings. Indeed, given our knowledge of significant Viking settlement in Ireland, it is remarkable that there are so few placenames of unambiguous Norse origin in the country (see Mac Giolla Easpaig, ibid.). It is also striking that with very few exceptions, Old Norse coinages were not adopted by the Irish: for example, the introduction of the new name Veðrafjǫrðr (now Eng. Waterford) had no impact whatsoever on the name Irish-speakers used, which is still to this day Port Láirge. Note that this is in very stark contrast to the situation in the Western Isles of Scotland, where there are countless examples of Norse placenames in gaelicized form.
Furthermore, while Scandinavian placenames in Ireland survive almost exclusively in the English-language stratum, this need not necessarily imply that the names were transmitted directly from Old Norse-speakers to the Anglo-Normans upon their arrival. While there were some vestiges of Norse/Irish bilingualism in Dublin into the 12th century (see Ó Corráin, ‘Old Norse and medieval Irish: bilingualism in Viking-age Dublin’, Dublin and the medieval world (2009), building on the research of Bugge, Nordisk sprog og nordisk nationalitet i Irland (1905)), the weight of the evidence points to widespread gaelicization. (In the earliest records of the Anglo-Normans the vast majority of surnames of Scandinavian origin appear as reflexes of the Irish forms – i.e., Macthorkel rather than Thorkelsson – and many gaelicized forms of Old Norse personal names feature in contemporary placenames of Irish-language origin.) In this context it is salient to note that the only Old Norse placenames the Anglo-Normans themselves adopted were the names of headlands, inlets and islands that would already have been familiar to generations of seafarers through what Ó Corráin called ‘the lingua franca of Ostman sailors and merchants’.
The dearth of Old Norse placenames in Ireland may point to the very early adoption of Irish as the vernacular among Scandinavian settlers in Ireland. But it might also point in the other direction: it could suggest that a significant number of the Vikings arriving in Ireland via Scotland – not only the specific group mentioned in the historical sources as the Gall-Goídil (Mod.Ir. Gall-Ghaeil) “foreign Irish” – already had a knowledge of the Irish language, possibly due to kinship ties with the Gaelic population of that country. Reliable historical evidence from the annals is very scanty, and the analysis of the toponymic evidence is very tricky. We will return to this topic next week.
[Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill]
- Deilginis/Dalkey
- Inis Mac Neasáin/Ireland's Eye
- Tigh Chú Chulainn/Cuchullin's House
- Ceann Léime/Loop Head
- Lios na gCearrbhach/Lisburn
- Ceann Léime/Slyne Head
- Droichead an Chláir/Clarecastle
- Tigh Chú Chulainn/Cuchullin's House