Translation of townland name ...

PFiddy

Hi there,

I'm from a townland in Armagh called Kilcreevy. I'm told that many years ago the names of townlands and roads became "Anglified" for the benefit of the postal system, however with the passing of time none of my neighbours can recall the original Irish name or its origin. The actual road I live on is Creevy Otra Road, which is also a mystery to me!
Can anyone point out the original Irish spelling and translation and put my curiosity to bed?

Go raibh maith agat

craoltoir

Tá liostaí logainmneacha áirithe ar fáil anseo:
http://www.ulsterplacenames.org/togr%C3%A1_sr%C3%A1idainmneacha.htm

Is féidir eolas a fháil fosta ag www.logainm.ie

Ar an droch uair níl leagan gaeilge ar fáil don áit a bhfuil cónaí ort (níl sé deimhnithe dar le suíomh an bhrainse logainmneacha).

B'fhéidir gur as Cill Chraoibh, nó a leithéid a thagann sé.

PFiddy

craoltoir wrote: »

Tá liostaí logainmneacha áirithe ar fáil anseo:
http://www.ulsterplacenames.org/togr%C3%A1_sr%C3%A1idainmneacha.htm

Is féidir eolas a fháil fosta ag www.logainm.ie

Ar an droch uair níl leagan gaeilge ar fáil don áit a bhfuil cónaí ort (níl sé deimhnithe dar le suíomh an bhrainse logainmneacha).

B'fhéidir gur as Cill Chraoibh, nó a leithéid a thagann sé.

Many thanks for the links - very helpful indeed. Unfortunately, I never learned Irish in school (it wasn't taught where I come from!) so I can't understand your entire message. I am, however, beginning lessons in February so maybe someday I will!

An gal gréine

I'm surprised Logainm.ie dont have a translation for it.
In Co. Donegal you have Mín na Craoibhe, a townland meaning The Heather Plain.

The Kil- is from either Coill, meaning woods or Cill meaning church/monastic cell.
Craobh means a branch or a tree or in botanical terms, heather, from which your -creevy could come from.
Otra is likely to mean dung-hill here... sorry about that !

Dont take this as definitive but it's something for you to go on from someone who takes a keen interest in place-names.

PFiddy

Thanks An gal gréine, very interesting.

My hunch is that "Kil" means Coill, meaning woods rather than Cill meaning church as I'm not aware of a church / monastic cell site or ruins in the townland (although that is not to say they didn't exist many years ago). While no longer densely wooded, there was without doubt a lot of deforestation here down through the years.

With this assumption in mind could Kilcreevy translate possibly as "Wood of Heather" or something like that? "Wood of Branch / Tree" seems like tautology to me!

An gal gréine

The Niall Ó Dónaill 'Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla' has 'expand' as another meaning for 'craobhaigh' ...so we could conclude,tentatively, that Kilcreevy comes from 'expanded wood'.... There's a line in an Altan song 'Tá mo chleamhnas déanta' which goes "...rachaidh mé leat féin, síos fána coille craobhaigh". Van Morrison and the Chieftains also sing it on 'Irish Heartbeat' and translate it as "wild woods".....there is a phrase in Irish "imeacht le craobhacha" which means "to run wild".
So 'expanded wood' or 'wild woods' are not far apart.

PFiddy

An gal gréine wrote: »

The Niall Ó Dónaill 'Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla' has 'expand' as another meaning for 'craobhaigh' ...so we could conclude,tentatively, that Kilcreevy comes from 'expanded wood'.... There's a line in an Altan song 'Tá mo chleamhnas déanta' which goes "...rachaidh mé leat féin, síos fána coille craobhaigh". Van Morrison and the Chieftains also sing it on 'Irish Heartbeat' and translate it as "wild woods".....there is a phrase in Irish "imeacht le craobhacha" which means "to run wild".
So 'expanded wood' or 'wild woods' are not far apart.

Wow An gal gréine, you've outdone yourself here!
So, if we were to conclude that Kilcreevy means 'expanded wood' or 'wild woods', would the correct spelling in Irish be "Cill Craobhaigh" ?

An gal gréine

I'd be going for Coill Chraobhaigh.

Múinteoir

Email the crowd at logainm.ie and ask them. Sometimes they have finalised Irish versions of placenames that haven't been added to the public internet database yet.
I was once looking for the Irish version of a placename that wasn't in their search engine, but they were able to give me an official version when I emailed them. It's still a work in progress.