Featured themes 24/11/2025

Turnips and hills
Gortavacan/Gort an Mheacain
(logainm.ie #30089).

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)

Turnips and hills Gortavacan/Gort an Mheacain (logainm.ie #30089).

Turnips and hills
Gortavacan/Gort an Mheacain
(logainm.ie #30089).