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Date: 24/11/2025

We are now on the threshold of the mid-winter month of December and it is likely that some farmers can still be seen harvesting. Given that many of the December crops are tubers – turnips, carrots and the like – we will look at some occurrences in townland names of the word meacan ‘any tap-rooted plant, as a carrot, a parsnip’ (Dinneen 1904 s.v. meacan), also found as meacan bán ‘parsnip’, meacan buí/dearg ‘carrot’ and meacan ráibe ‘turnip’ (FGB s.v. meacan).

The word seems to have been used in the sense of ‘(cultivated) root’ in the early literature (eDIL s.v. mecon). (Note that an early law-text specified that barley and wheat were best grown in tír trí mecon cona tuar téchta ‘land of three roots with proper manuring’: see Kelly, Early Irish Farming, p.229.) Meacan is not a cast-iron diagnostic of agricultural activity, however, as it also occurs in the names of various uncultivated, more or less edible species (FGB ibid.; cf. Dinneen 1927: 721 s.v. meacan). (Note for example the local interpretation of Mackan/Na Meacain (#29361) in Co. Leitrim: “Meacain … so called, according to Old Moran, from the abundance of wild carrots it produced” (1836).)

That being said, when meacan is found in combination with the generic gort ‘field’ we can perhaps presume that cultivation is implied: thus Gortavacan/Gort an Mheacain (logainm.ie #30089) in Co. Leitrim can be explained ‘the field of the cultivated root’ and Gortnamackan/Gort na Meacan (logainm.ie #19987) in Co. Galway ‘the field of the cultivated roots’. We have mentioned in earlier notes the common repurposing of disused defensive/domestic enclosures to serve an agricultural purpose: it is possible that this is the origin of the names Lisnamacka/Lios na Meacan (logainm.ie #39371) in Co. Monaghan and Ranamackan/Ráth na Meacan (logainm.ie #19678) in Co. Galway, both signifying ‘the ring-fort of the (cultivated/edible) roots’, although of course wild growth is equally likely in dilapidated structures. When found with topographical elements, however, the plausibility of meacan as a cultivated crop can be questioned. Thus, while Cloonmackan/Cluain Meacan ‘pasture of (the) (cultivated/edible) roots’ (logainm.ie #6698) in Co. Clare might point to agriculture, other examples such as Lugnamackan/Log na Meacan (logainm.ie #45087) ‘the hollow of the (edible?) roots’ in Co. Sligo and Altnamackan/Alt na Meacan ‘the height, abyss of the (edible?) roots’ (logainm.ie #56385) in Co. Armagh (see also placenamesni.org Altnamackan) are more unlikely.

The derived adjective meacanach also occurs in substantivized form in placenames, apparently denoting a place ‘abounding in (cultivated/edible?/wild) roots’. Examples include Mackanagh/Meacanach (logainm.ie #48694) and Mackney/Meacanaigh (logainm.ie #46548) in Co. Tipperary. Mackinawood/Coill na Meacanaí (logainm.ie #48541) – also in Co. Tipperary but unrelated to either of the preceding examples – is perhaps better explained as ‘the wood of/at An Mheacanach [placename]’ (see ‘Mackinagh’ (1726), ‘Mackina Wood’ (1840)) whereas Gortnamackanee/Gort na Meacanaí (logainm.ie #22082) in Co. Kerry, owing to its generic gort, might be more likely to refer to a field in which tuberous root crops were cultivated, i.e., ‘the field of the place abounding in carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc.’

The explanations above are all based on the conventional interpretation of meacan as denoting a plant of some description. However, T.S. Ó Máille – having noted figurative usages in literature – suggested in relation to 18 examples of meacan (and derivatives) in placenames around the country that the term “seems to be applied frequently to a thick lump and hence, in toponymy, to a hill, or short ridge” (‘Meacan in Áitainmneacha’, Dinnseanchas II (1967) pp. 93–97). The metaphor is reasonable but more research is required to establish whether this is anything more than pure coincidence.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Cluain Meacan/Cloonmackan
• Ráth na Meacan/Ranamackan
• Gort na Meacan/Gortnamackan
• Gort na Meacanaí/Gortnamackanee
• Na Meacain/Mackan
• Gort an Mheacain/Gortavacan
• Lios na Meacan/Lisnamacka
• Log na Meacan/Lugnamackan
• Meacanaigh (O'Brien)/Mackney (O'Brien)
• Coill na Meacanaí/Mackinawood
• Meacanach Íochtarach/Mackanagh Lower
• Alt na Meacan/Altnamackan

Date: 17/11/2025

Still on the theme of the supernatural in placenames – following on from previous notes on the púca ‘a sprite; a ghost; a bogey-man’ – we turn to the Irish word péist, a borrowing from Latin bestia, initially meaning ‘(mythological) beast, monster’, developing to ‘(creeping) reptile’ and then simply ‘worm’ (eDIL s.v. píast; cf. FGB s.vv. péist, piast, biast).

Poll Péiste ‘pool, hole of (the) worm’ is the forerunner to two townland names in Co. Wexford, namely Poulpeasty (logainm.ie #1383824) near Taghmon and Pollpeasty (logainm.ie #52389) near Clonroche. It is interesting to note the collocation of péist with poll ‘pool, hole (cave?)’, similar to the many repetitions of Poll an Phúca “the pool, hole of the pooka” noted previously. There are even more examples as minor names. In the Gaeltacht we have Poll na Péiste (logainm.ie #1396883) in Co. Donegal and Poll na bPéist (logainm.ie #1399110) on the island of Árainn in Co. Galway (see Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2011). Other examples recorded from native Irish speakers during the 20th century include Poulnapeasta/Poll na Péiste (logainm.ie #1419995) in Co. Clare and Poulnabeast / Poll na bPiast (logainm.ie #1421720) in Co. Waterford.

P.W. Joyce explained Poll Péiste as “hole or pool of the péist or monstrous reptile” (Irish Names of Places Vol. 3, p.531). In keeping with Joyce, the foregoing examples could be explained ‘the hole or pool of the (fabulous) beast(s)’ or simply ‘(the) worm hole’. Indeed, the official English version of the townland name Poll na bPéist ‘the pool, hole of the worms/beasts’ north of Galway city is Wormhole (logainm.ie #20983).

We saw in a recent note that the referent of Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca (logainm.ie #55309) near Arklow, Co. Wicklow, was a spring well in the south of the townland (called Puck’s Hole in English), from which a stream rises and flows down through a little glen. The abovementioned townland of Pollpeasty/Poll Péiste near Clonroche, Co. Wexford, also took its name from the source of a stream. This was given the corrupt name St. Paul’s Well on the first edition of the OS 6ʺ map (repeated on OS 25ʺ), but corrected to Pollpeasty on the revised OS 6ʺ map of 1925.

One townland name that explicitly unites worm and well is Tobernapeastia/Tobar na Péiste (logainm.ie #26830) in Co. Kilkenny. In this case we can be sure that the péist was not mythological but painfully mundane! The tradition recorded from the Irish-speaking locals in 1839 was that they used to wash their hands in the well-water “chúm siúbhal péiste do leigheas”, i.e. “to cure a bout of the worm-trouble” (Ordnance Survey Letters (Kilkenny) I: 188) (cf. Dinneen s.v. siubhal ‘[fit of] trouble’; Ó Dónaill s.vv. 3 seol, seolán; eDIL s.v. 1 séol (b)). Therefore Tobernapeastia/Tobar na Péiste, literally ‘the well of the worm’, is more accurately explained – at least in the later local understanding of the name – as ‘the well of (the cure for) the worm(-disease)’, and can be compared other well-names such as Tobar na Súl ‘the well (that cures disease) of the eyes’ and Tobar na gCluas ‘the well (that cures disease) of the ears’. Dr. Pádraig Ó Dálaigh (then Higher Placenames Officer at the Placenames Branch) visited Tobernapeastia in 2016 and discovered that the well was known locally as The Well of the Worms (see the thesis The Holy Wells of County Kilkenny). The name of the spring well at Pollpeasty, Co. Wexford (St. Paul’s Well (!) SO 6ʺ), may have the same curative origin.

Not all of the examples are necessarily mundane: in some placenames it is hard to escape the feeling that péist was originally intended to invoke some kind of legendary creature. One of the many lakes among the hills of Skreen in Co. Wexford – near Curracloe and Blackwater – is recorded in 16th-century sources as ‘Loghnebeist’ (Civil Survey Vol. IX, p.60) and ‘Loughnepeast’ (Inquisitions Leinster Jac. I 23). The local pronunciation is [lɔknə ˈbiːʃt], and the underlying name appears to be Loch na bPiast. According to the erstwhile owner of the land in which the lake is located – the late Jack Harding of 1960 All-Ireland hurling fame – the water level of this lake tends to rise during dry periods and fall during wet spells. This appears to have led to the belief that some kind of piastanna (péisteanna) in the sense ‘fabulous beasts’ were trapped at the bottom of the lake (cf. Irish Names of Places Vol. 1, p.197: “the imprisonment of these demonical monsters is commonly attributed to St Patrick”). A similar natural phenomenon may also lie behind other names containing péist: see for instance the note by the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project concerning Drumbest/Droim na bPiast “the ridge of the beasts, worms” (logainm.ie #62247) in Co. Armagh (‘Drimnebest’ (1669)), situated just north of a lake described in 1831 as “unfathomable in its centre” (placenamesni.org s.n. Drumbest).

Other occurrences of péist, et var., include:

Ailt na Péiste (logainm.ie #1395256)
Altnapaste/Allt na Péiste “the height, ravine of the beast, worm” (logainm.ie #16101)
Lisnapaste/Lios na Péiste “the ringfort of the beast, worm” (#13907) in Co. Donegal
Cappanapeasta/Ceapach na Péiste “the plot of the beast, worm” (logainm.ie #6161) in Co. Clare
Cornapaste/Corr na Péiste “the round hill of the beast, worm” (logainm.ie #40033) in Co. Monaghan
Gortnapeasty/Gort na Péiste “the field of the beast, worm” (logainm.ie #11332) in Co. Cork
Emlaghpeastia/Imleach Péiste “boundary land of the beast, worm” (logainm.ie #22412) in Co. Kerry. ​

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Ceapach na Péiste/Cappanapeasta
• Gort na Péiste/Gortnapeasty
• Lios na Péiste/Lisnapaste
• Allt na Péiste/Altnapaste
• Poll na bPéist/Wormhole
• Imleach Péiste/Emlaghpeastia
• Tobar na Péiste/Tobernapeastia
• Corr na Péiste/Cornapaste
• Poll Péiste/Pollpeasty
• Droim na bPiast/Drumbest
• Poll Péiste/Poulpeasty
• Ailt na Péiste/Altnapeaste
• Poll na Péiste/Pollnapeaste
• Poll na bPéist/The Wormhole
• Poll na Péiste/Poulnapeasta

Date: 10/11/2025

While the festival of Samhain/Halloween has probably been very much Americanised in recent years, the native Irish festival often involved one group now rarely mentioned in Halloween discourse---the sióga "fairies". In native tradition the síoga were reputedly particularly active during Samhain/Halloween, but they are only specifically mentioned in a small number of townland names. This includes Clonnasheeoge/Cluain na Sióg "the pasture of the fairies" (see logainm.ie: #52570) as well as Parknashoge/Páirc na Sióg "the park of the fairies" in County Wexford (see logainm.ie: #52864). It is notable that the sióga/fairies were also mentioned in another now-defunct townland name near Hollyfort in County Wexford, namely Raheneshioge/Ráithín na Sióg "the (little) ringfort of the fairies". It seems that there was once a particularly strong tradition surrounding the sióga/fairies in parts of County Wexford. Elsewhere, we have the townland name Ballynasheeoge/Baile na Sióg "the town(land) of the fairies" in Galway (see logainm.ie: #18636). We also have the English names Fairyhill in Clare, Fairyhall in Limerick and Fairy Island in Sligo, but the evidence is insufficient to determine whether these are English creations or translations from Irish.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Baile na Sióg/Ballynasheeoge
• Cluain na Sióg/Clonnasheeoge
• Páirc na Sióg/Parknashoge

Date: 03/11/2025

Our understanding of Samhain/Halloween has probably changed quite a lot over the years, and it is probably now much more concerned with features and monsters that have little to do with native Irish culture. However, monsters did indeed also feature in native tradition, and no townland name reflects this better than Glennawoo/Gleann na bhFuath "the glen of the monsters" near Lough Talt in the Ox Mountains of Sligo (see logainm.ie: #45661). One tradition about this placename is recounted in W. G. Wood-Martin's History of Sligo: Town and County iii:

The tradition is, that the valley in which the well is situated was the haunt of a monster in the shape of a great serpent that devoured or destroyed every human being or animal within reach, and hence the name of the Glenn. But a delivery arrived in the person of St. Athy or Araght [Athracht] ... bringing a blessed staff given to her by St. Patrick, with which she pursued and killed the monster on the spot where the well sprang up (p. 357; see here).

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Gleann na bhFuath/Glennawoo

Date: 30/10/2025

Oireachtas na Gaeilge, the largest annual Irish language arts festival, returns to Belfast at the end of October for the first time since 1997. This will doubtless bring about a spike in interest as to the meaning of the Irish name from which anglicized Belfast derives, Béal Feirste (logainm.ie #1166557). The structure of the name is straightforward but, as we will see presently, there have been slightly varying explanations of its meaning over the years. It is also particularly interesting to note that there is more than one Béal Feirste in Ireland, one of which refers to the deceptively pleasantly-named Fearsaid na Fionntrá “the tidal ford of/at the white strand”, which in fact led the traveller to the site of numerous bloody battles, both real and legendary, recorded in early Irish annals and literature.

Belfast / Béal Feirste in Co. Antrim is extremely well-attested in Irish sources, with many references provided in the Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames (Fascicle 2 s.n. Béal Feirsde). The name is explained there as meaning “Approach to *Fearsad”. Béal ‘mouth’ frequently refers to an ‘approach’ when found in placenames, and the editors have taken Fearsad to be a pre-existing placename, most likely based on a historical reference to ‘Cath Feirste’ “the battle of Fearsad” (see Onomasticon Goedelicum, DIAS). Ireland’s most famous toponymist, John O’Donovan (once Professor of Celtic Languages at Queen’s University Belfast), gave another take on the meaning of Béal Feirste. In his explanation of the reference to ‘caislén beoil feirste’ in the Annals of the Four Masters he wrote “Bel-feirste, i.e., the mouth of the river Fersat, which falls into the River Lagan, where this castle stood” (see The Annals of the Four Masters IV, p. 1100).

Our colleagues at the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project have a slightly different understanding of its meaning, explaining Béal Feirste as “mouth of the sand-bank ford’’, adding that “The sand-bank ford was across the mouth of the river Lagan. The little river Farset which flows below High Street and enters the Lagan near this point has also been named from the ford (fearsaid, genitive feirste)” (see placenamesNI.org; see also McKay, P. (1999): A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names, p. 21). This word fearsaid has a number of different meanings including “ridge of sand in tidal waters, tidal ford” (Ó Dónaill, FGB s.v. fearsaid). To the explanations of Béal Feirste just mentioned we may add another simplified variation, “approach of/to (the) tidal ford”.

The Modern Irish word fearsaid (gen. sg. feirste) is a development from Old Irish fertas due to a phenomenon called metathesis. (‘Old Irish’ refers to the period of the language from roughly c. 700 to c. 950 AD.) This fertas has been explained as meaning, among other things, ‘a raised bank or ridge of earth or sand, gen[erally] of a bar or shallow near the sea-shore or a ford in a river’ (eDIL s.v. 2 fertas), which is still the sense of Modern Irish fearsaid “ridge of sand in tidal waters, tidal ford”. This meaning seems to be a secondary development from an original ‘shaft … axle … spindle’, evidently referring to the raised nature of a sand ridge at low tide (eDIL s.v. 1 fertas). Dinneen’s early 20th-century dictionary explains the word as meaning both a ‘spindle’ (fearsaid) and ‘a passage across the strand at low water’ (fearsad), and he even specifically used ‘Béal Feirste, Belfast’ as an example of the latter (see Dinneen, s.vv. fearsad, fearsaid). Other meanings he provides for fearsad include ‘a deep narrow channel in the strand when the tide is at low ebb … a pit or pool of water’, indicating that the meaning of the word had extended to mean the very opposite of ‘a passage across the strand at low water’.

In any case, most references to the placename Béal Feirste in earlier Irish-language texts refer to it in conjunction with the caisleán ‘castle’ (see Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames). This clearly reflects the settlement’s strategic location next to the River Lagan, most likely at the fearsaid ‘tidal ford’ where the estuary could be traversed. As it is likely that the fearsaid mentioned in the account of the early Cath Feirste ‘(the) battle of Fearsaid’ referred specifically to the tidal ford itself, the name Béal Feirste must refer to the site of the castle at the ‘approach of/to (the) tidal ford’.

It is not widely known that a second Béal Feirste ‘approach of/to (the) tidal ford’ is found as the name of a townland in the Gaeltacht of Co. Mayo (logainm.ie #37016). This had the variant Irish form Béal Fearsaide, reflected in the formerly official anglicized spelling Belfarsad found on Ordnance Survey maps. (When the Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004 was made under the Official Languages Act 2003, this anglicized name ceased to have any legal status.) This townland is situated in northwest Mayo between the peninsula of An Corrán and the island of Acaill, directly opposite a place called Gob na Feirste ‘the point of the tidal ford’. According to the late Dr. Fiachra Mac Gabhann, Gob na Feirste is the headland that lies east of the village of Na Sraithíní on Acaill, just below a place called Gob Phatsy ‘Patsy’s point’. Fiachra’s research showed that Gob Phatsy had been erroneously marked ‘Gubnafarsda’ on the Ordnance Survey 6ʺ map, and Gob na Feirste is actually the next promontory to the south of this (‘Acaill le Mapaí; A collection of minor names from Acaill’ collated by Dr. Fiachra Mac Gabhann in the archive of An Brainse Logainmneacha). In any case Béal Feirste lies directly opposite Gob na Feirste, so we can assume that the tidal ford traversed Gob an Choire (Achill Sound) between these two points.

An even less well-known location formerly called Béal Feirste (logainm.ie #1437931) was situated in the townlands of Carrowcrin and Cartronabree on the shores of Ballysadare Bay in Co. Sligo. In the 17th century this placename is attested as ‘Belfersdy’ on the Down Survey and Hiberniae Delineatio maps (see downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie) and as ‘Bellfersdy’ in the related Book of Survey and Distribution, as well as ‘Bellfast’ in the unrelated Hearth Money Rolls (p. 29). We also find it as ‘Bellfirst’ in 1711 (CGn. 63.73.42718) and ‘Bellfrees als. Belferst’ in 1732 (CGn. 71.282.50749), so there can be no doubt that Béal Feirste is the original Irish form. (Note as an aside that our earliest example of the name, ‘Bealefirste’ (1614), found in a King’s grant to James Baxter, provides us with the name of its last Gaelic Irish owner, namely ‘Calloh McOwen O’Connor’ [Calbhach mac Eoghain Ó Conchúir] who was ‘slain in rebellion’ (CPR, p. 266b).)

A nineteenth-century map of tidal fords in County Sligo refers to the ford extending from Béal Feirste to Streamstown as ‘Fintragh Pass’ (T. O’Rorke, The History of Sligo: Town and County I, p. 47). This fearsaid ‘tidal ford’ actually leads not only to Streamstown, but to two further tidal fords depicted as ‘Long Strand’ and ‘Short Strand’ on the map in question. In fact, this document shows that there was once a network of tidal fords in Co. Sligo: the first went from Coolbeg and Kintogher across Drumcliff Bay; the second crossed Sligo Bay at Fearsaid Rann an Liagáin (possibly at Standalone Point); the third was the one just mentioned, crossing Ballysadare Bay from Béal Feirste to Streamstown; while the last ones, namely ‘Short Strand’ and ‘Long Strand’, led from the same place in Streamstown across the south of Ballysadare Bay to Crockacullion and Beltra, respectively. These formed part of the primary route from west Ulster into north Connaught. The longer of last-mentioned tidal fords, namely ‘Long Strand’ was identified as Fearsaid na Fionntrá at Cúil Chnámh in Edward Hogan’s Onomasticon Goedelicum: ‘f[ersat] na finntrága at Cúil Cnamh [next to Beltra] … al. Pass of Tráigh Eothuille’. This identification was recently followed by one of the present writers in an essay discussing defunct placenames in Sligo (see C. Ó Crualaoich, ‘Causeways, battles, real and imaginary: some placenames in the Sligo parish of Dromard, one of the ‘three wonders of Connaught and Ireland’ and one of the ‘three strands of Ireland’, in Sligo Field Club Journal 2023). However, in light of the identification by Sligo man Terence O’Rorke of the fearsaid from Béal Feirste to Streamstown as ‘Finntragh Pass’, there seems little reason to doubt that this was actually Fearsaid na Fionntrá ‘the tidal ford of the white strand’ as mentioned in the Annals.

Be that as it may, at roughly 4km, the fearsaid across Ballysadare Bay called ‘Long Strand’, to which the tidal ford from Sligo’s Béal Feirste ultimately led, was unquestionably one of the longest tidal fords in Connaught and possibly in the whole of Ireland. It was the site of numerous historical battles and skirmishes, so much so that its fame spread thoroughly into native Irish literature: mentioned in the Fenian Cycle, it also crops up frequently in the saga called Cath Mhaigh Tuireadh (‘The Battle of Maigh Tuireadh’), as well as in the native Triads and genealogies. Its renown also led to the literary creation of further aliases for the strand such as Ros Airgid ‘silver headland’ and Trá na Mná Mairbhe ‘the strand of the dead woman’. An optical illusion caused by a feature north of the fearsaid, namely Carraigín Eothaile, was so infamous that it too was incorporated into literature: as Carn Thrá Eothaile it was described as the burial cairn of King Eochaidh mac Eirc, also known as Carn Eachach and Luí Eothaile. Indeed, this Luí Eothaile was described in the Triads as one of the ‘Trí hignad Hérenn’ “three wonders of Ireland” (see ‘Causeways, battles, real and imaginary’). Its infamy was due to a particularly dangerous optical illusion: Carraigín Eothaile (als. Luí Eothaile) appeared at exactly the same level by low water as by high. This meant that the fearsaid at Trá Eothaile could be easily misjudged and be particularly perilous, even when armies, real or literary, weren’t clashing here. Indeed, it must be no coincidence that the point at which the fearsaid of Trá Eothaile came ashore at Beltra / Béal Trá was actually called Cúil Chnámh “(the) recess of bones” locally.

However, references to fearsaid need not always be perilous or filled with foreboding. On the occasion of this year’s Oireachtas, it is pleasing to note the coincidence that fearsaid can also refer to literary creations such as a ‘piece of poetry, verse or ditty’ (FGB s.v. fearsaid). Keeping phrases such as i mbéal eadra ‘coming on to milking-time’ in mind, can we stretch our poetic licence to translate Béal Feirste as ‘coming on to poetry-time’…? Maybe just for the duration of the Oireachtas!

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich \& Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Béal Feirste/Belfarsad
• Béal Feirste/Belfast
• Béal Feirste/Bellfast

Date: 27/10/2025

In last week’s note we saw that despite the frequency of Irish púca ‘sprite … ghost … bogey-man’ in placenames, anglicized spellings such as -fook, -pooka, puck(s)-, etc., can also represent Irish forms of the surname Puck/Pook or the given name Foulke introduced by the Anglo-Normans. One definite example of the name Foulke is found in Foulksmill/Muileann Fúca (logainm.ie #131844) in Co. Wexford. The surname Puck (var. Pook) appears in many others, as in the name of the townland Puckstown (logainm.ie #56008) in north Dublin (now the modern estates of Grace Park and Celtic Park either side of Collins Avenue) which is of English-language origin. (Baile Phúca, the official Irish name, is a translation.)

Sometimes name-forms recorded in Irish during Ordnance Survey fieldwork in the 19th century might at first be understood to contain the common noun púca ‘sprite’, only for earlier historical forms to point to English origin. The reason for the confusion is quite simple. As discussed in earlier notes, the substantivized adjectival form of the gaelicized surname Púc (< Puck/Pook) gives Irish An Púcach. In the genitive case, Irish gen. sg. an Phúcaigh ‘of the person surnamed Puck’ is very close in speech in most dialects to gen. sg. an phúca ‘of the pooka’; and the similarities of both forms with Irish Fúca – the traditional gaelicization of the unrelated given name Foulke – are obvious.

To confuse matters further, we find indications that Foulke was also gaelicized as Púca (compare the variation of P-/F- in Piaras/Feoras < AN Piers). Even in the case of the well-attested Foulkstown/Baile Fúca (#47474) in Co. Tipperary, where the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates Irish Fúca (< Foulke), e.g. ‘Bally Ffowky’ (1508), ‘Fulckstown’ (1525), ‘Fowkyston’ (1539), we find one exceptional 17th-century form ‘Pookestowne’ (1659), where P- represents the radical (unlenited) initial of Irish Púca (? ≈ Fúca < Foulke). A clearer example of reinterpretation within the Irish language is found in ‘baile an phúca’ (1838), the local Irish form of Foulkstown (logainm.ie #27009) in Co. Kilkenny. The consistent historical spellings Foulkes-, Fowkes-, Fouks-, etc. (1584–1838) show that in that case, Baile an Phúcaigh ‘the town(land) of An Púcach’, derives ultimately from the given name Foulke. (It is at least possible that the name originally contained the related surname Foulkes, et var., though it does not appear to have been at all common among the Anglo-Normans in Ireland.)

This is not the only instance of such ambiguity. For example, Cloghpook (logainm.ie #26982), also in Co. Kilkenny, is attested as ‘cloch a’ phúca’ (1838), which on the face of it appears to be another collocation of the common noun púca with a topographical generic, i.e. Cloch an Phúca “stone”. But again, earlier written forms of the name and secondary historical evidence clearly point to an eponym of Anglo-Norman origin. The element cloch ‘stone’ often refers to stone structures in Irish placenames (“a construction of stone, esp. fortress, stronghold, castle” eDIL s.v. cloch [sense (f)]; cf. FGB s.v. cloch (5)). In this case a castle named ‘The Clofowke’ is depicted on the Down Survey barony map of c 1655 (“in good repair”) and the field in which it was located was still called Shanachushlawn [An Seanchaisleán] (‘the old castle’) by elderly Irish speakers at the turn of the 20th century, as recorded by Corrigan (History and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory (1905) III 456). Corrigan also mentions that the owners of castle were the de Freynes (cf. Freneystown/Baile na bhFréineach (#27081) [‘Ballinevrenagh’ (1623)] 8km to the south), a family with a fondness for the given name Foulke (e.g. Fulk de la Frene †1349, son of Fulk de la Freigne †1320). It is evident that here we have another case of the personal name Foulke reinterpreted in Irish as An Púcach ‘the person surnamed Púca/Fúca(?), i.e., Foulke), whence the official Irish form Cloghpook/Cloch an Phúcaigh. Many similar examples are discussed in Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill’s essay ‘An púca i logainmeacha’ in Ainm 1987.

The word púca is unattested in Irish literature or placenames until the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, and seems to be a borrowing from Middle English: see Middle English Dictionary s.v. pŏuk(e) ‘from OE pūca; also cp. OI pūki … An evil spirit, a devil, goblin’. It is noteworthy – with regard to the Irish collocation of the púca with the element poll ‘hole, pool, cave’ discussed last week – that the same dictionary entry quotes early attestations of English placenames such as Pukpole (1232) and toponymic surnames such as de Pukehole (1296). (See also Survey of English Place-Names s.nn. Pucks Hole [Gloucestershire], Puckpool [Gloucestershire], Pug’s Hole [Dorset]; cf. Ox. Dict. Fam. Names s.n. Puckle (2).) It seems likely that the first púca arrived in Ireland during the Anglo-Norman invasion, along with the first Foulkes and Pooks.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Cloch an Phúcaigh/Cloghpook
• Baile an Phúcaigh/Foulkstown
• Baile Fúca/Foulkstown
• Baile Phúca/Puckstown
• Muileann Fúca/Foulkesmill

Date: 20/10/2025

Many of us of a certain vintage will know the meaning of Hiberno-English pooka ‘a sprite; a ghost; a bogey-man’, a rendering of Irish púca. In Irish tradition it is these spiteful little characters who are, amongst other things, responsible for rendering the sweet sméara dubha ‘blackberries’ (discussed in earlier notes) entirely inedible after Oíche Shamhna or Halloween. (See e.g. Schools’ Folklore Collection: Co. Mayo, Co. Wexford and Co. Dublin; cf. FGB s.v. púca na sméar; T. P. Dolan, púca.) As we reach the beginning of the Irish winter, we can discuss the tricky issue of the identification of the púca in townland names and other toponyms.

Possibly the most well-known example is Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca ‘the hole, pool, cave of the pooka’ (logainm.ie #113024) in Co. Wicklow (variant English spelling Poulaphouca), familiar today as the name of a massive reservoir also sometimes called the Blessington Lake(s). The reservoir took its name from the waterfall at Pollaphuca Bridge on the River Liffey. Although greatly enfeebled by the construction of the reservoir dam in 1939, this was once a magnificent natural feature: “a mighty fall called by the Natives Pullagh Fuckagh […] reported to be the greatest in Ireland” The Civil Survey [c 1654] Vol. VII, p. 288; “Poolapooka a remarkable Cataract” Noble & Keenan Map (Co. Kildare) (1752), etc. It is very unusual to find the generic poll referring to a waterfall (eDIL s.v. poll): the placename may have been transferred from the pool underneath, or – given its qualification by the element púca (eDIL s.v. púca) – a more figurative sense such as ‘foreboding place’ may have been intended from the beginning (FGB s.v. poll (8)).

We have many other examples of the placename Poll an Phúca ‘the hole, pool, cave of the pooka’. Another, less well-known instance in Co. Wicklow is the name of the townland Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca (logainm.ie #55309) near Arklow. In that case it appears that the name originally referred to the source of a spring on the parish boundary in the southeast corner of the townland, where a well is marked Pollaphuca on early editions of the Ordnance Survey 6ʺ map. Note the following description in the Namebook: “‘Pucks Hole’ at which a stream rises and runs southwards” (1839). (Irish was no longer spoken in this district at this time.)

In the west of Ireland, there are two separate townlands called Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca in Co. Galway (logainm.ie #21453; #21627) and another in County Clare (logainm.ie #6921). We can almost certainly count the townland name Pollaphuca (logainm.ie #43687) in Co. Roscommon as another example, even though research has not been completed on the townland names of that county. (John O’Donovan wrote ‘Poll a’ phúca’ in the Namebook after spending the day with a local seanchaí: “O’Flyn […] knows every bush in the parish of Kiltullagh, the names of which he pronounced for me [while we examined] the Namebooks” (Ordnance Survey Letters (Roscommon) I 146 (5/7/1837).) In the north, we find that the English townland name Puckstown in Co. Louth is a pseudotranslation of original Irish Poll an Phúca (logainm.ie #33597).

Clearly, there was a tendency in Irish placenames to collocate the two elements poll ‘pool, hole, cave’ and púca. Dr. Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill, former Chief Placenames Officer, noted a total of 19 instances of Poll an Phúca in his important and comprehensive essay ‘An púca i logainmeacha’ [The púca in placenames], Ainm Vol. 2 (1987) pp. 96–113.

Examples among minor names include two instances of Poll an Phúca in Co. Waterford (logainm.ie #1421672; #1421028). One of these, in the Waterford Gaeltacht, is also known as Clais an Phúca ‘the trench of the pooka’ and simply An Gleann ‘the glen’ (#1421028). We find Clais an Phúca as a townland name in Cos. Kerry (#24499) and Tipperary (#1436889); and we find Gleann an Phúca ‘the glen of the pooka’ in Cos. Cork (#12339; #12966), Tipperary (#67204) and Waterford (#49075). In a similar semantic vein we find two historical examples of Log an Phúca ‘the hollow of the pooka’ in the Dublin Mountains – one of which possibly referred to a treacherous waterfall on a mountain stream (Mionlogainmneacha de bhunús Gaeilge i ngleannta Chontae Bhaile Átha Cliath [Minor placenames of Irish-language origin in the glens of Co. Dublin] p.153) – and Tóin an Phúca ‘the bottom(land) of the pooka’ in Flemingtown South or Tonaphuca (#25719) not far away in Co. Kildare. It would seem that in the Irish folk mind it was in little valleys and hollows like these – places called clais, gleann, log or in particular poll – that you were most likely to meet a púca, if you were so unlucky!

Given the frequency of references to the púca in placenames, you would be forgiven for thinking that Irish placenames rendered in anglicized spellings such as -fook, -pooka, -phucka, -phuca, puck(s)-, etc., are very straightforward to analyse. In fact this is where the placename researcher’s nightmare often begins. As Ó Cearbhaill (1987) discusses, these anglicized spellings can sometime represent the surname Pook/Puck or the given name Foulke, both of which are attested among the Anglo-Normans in Ireland (e.g. Fulke Furlang of Co. Wexford [anno 1395], Memoranda roll, 19–20 Richard II, membrane 7). Take for instance Inchaphuca (logainm.ie #3600) in Co. Carlow. At first glance, it would be reasonable to suspect that the original Irish name was Inse an Phúca ‘the holm of the pooka’. (Of course the standard anglicized spelling was chosen in 1839 precisely in order to reflect that supposed derivation.) However, the overall evidence actually reflects Inse an Phúcaigh ‘the holm of An Púcach’ (e.g. ‘Inchnefowkie’ (1593)), containing a gaelicized version of the Anglo-Norman surname of the type discussed in recent notes (An Púcach < Púc, a phonetic adaptation of English Pook/Puck).

Finally, having mentioned anglicized spellings, we should draw attention to the fact that the Ordnance Survey form of placenames whose local Irish name appeared to contain púca were in almost every instance standardized to -phuca (rather than -phooka, -fooka, etc.). This spelling derives from a very early decision made by John O’Donovan concerning a minor placename which was to be engraved on the maps in the townland of An Sián/Shean (#60574), Co. Fermanagh: “PollaPhuca, as in the Irish” (Ordnance Survey Memoranda (Fermanagh) p.163 (16/2/1835)). Rather exceptionally, this “Irish” spelling Pollaphuca was established as the standard anglicized form for all examples of the placename, except when the Survey progressed into Irish-speaking districts where the local pronunciation required rendering the first element as Poul-.

Not for the first time (and probably not for the last) we must point out that O’Donovan and his fellow scholars in the Topographical Department of the Ordnance Survey had grown up steeped in Irish culture and Irish-language placenames all their lives, and were far more sensitive to that heritage than their portrayal in the play Translations would have us believe.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Inse an Phúcaigh/Inch or Inchaphuca
• Poll an Phúca/Poulaphuca
• Poll an Phúca/Pollaphuca
• Poll an Phúca/Pollaphuca
• Clais an Phúca/Clashaphuca
• Poll an Phúca/Puckstown
• /Pollaphuca
• Poll an Phúca/Pollaphuca
• Poll an Phúca
• Poll an Phúca/Poll an Phúca
• Clais an Phúca/Clashaphooca