Featured themes 07/04/2025

Bones galore
Naghill / Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’
(see logainm.ie #40647)

Date: 07/04/2025

Last week’s discussion of creamh ‘wild garlic’ in townland names omitted any mention of other words that can refer to the same plant, such as cainneann ‘garlic, leek, onion (?)’ (eDIL s.v. cainnenn); borrlus ‘lit. bulbous plant or vegetable; garlic, leek (?)’ (eDIL s.v. borrlus); and even lus itself: this general term for a plant or herb could also specifically denote garlic (eDIL s.v. lus). There was good reason for the omission: these words rarely occur in townland names of Irish origin. (Lus is unlikely to have its narrow sense of ‘garlic’ in combination with the generic maigh ‘plain’ in the parish name Lusmhaigh / Lusmagh (#2036) in Co. Offaly.) One possible further example might be found in the townland name Cluain Iongan / Clooningan (logainm.ie #45551) in Co. Sligo, which could be interpreted ‘meadow, pasture of (the) garlic cloves’. (The word ionga, gen. sg. iongan can refer not only to a nail of a finger, toe, or claw but also to a clove of garlic: see FGB s.v. ionga; eDIL s.v. ingen.)

If there are not many placenames containing elements that mean the same as Irish creamh, there are certainly examples of another Irish word that can sound very similar to creamh, namely cnámh ‘bone’. We are all familiar with the development of the cluster cn- /kn-/ to cr- /kr-/ in some Modern Irish dialects. As is often the case with these types of sound changes, this occasionally led to hypercorrection in the other direction, with words originally beginning cr- /kr-/ being pronounced cn- /kn-. (For example, An Chraobhach ‘the place of bushes, trees’ (#55689) – the Irish name of Avondale in Co. Wicklow – occurs in one late bilingual manuscript as ‘Cneaugh’ and ‘An Chneamhach’ (1726).) We can see immediately the problems that this can cause in the analysis of placenames containing creamh and cnámh.

Take the townland name Crawhill / Creamhchoill ‘wild-garlic wood’ (logainm.ie #44483) in Co. Sligo. In 1836, the Irish scholars of the Ordnance Survey recorded not only ‘Creamh choill’ but also ‘Cneamh Choill’ from local native speakers. As the editors of the Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames (Fascicle 5) suggest, it is very possible that today’s Crawhill might be identical with the historical placename Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ attested in Irish sources as the site of an ancient battle in Connaught. Even so, the evidence points to Creamhchoill being the form most recently used by the local community when Irish was the vernacular language here.

Similarly, while the weight of the evidence for Naghill (logainm.ie #40647) in Co. Monaghan favours derivation from Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ with anglicized N- attested at an early date (‘Gnaghill’ 1591, ‘Naghill’ 1607, etc.), the historical form ‘Crakill’ (1664) – no doubt reflecting cn- /kr-/ of the local Irish pronunciation – could, in isolation, easily be mistaken for Creamhchoill. Clearly, these subtleties necessitate a measured approach and particularly careful research in the case of each placename, as very little can be taken at face value.

Some examples are even more opaque. The placename Cleghile / Cleachoill (logainm.ie #48842) in Co. Tipperary would perhaps be unrecognizable as a development from Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ except for the fact that this is a very famous place, well attested by the original form of its name in Irish literature (‘Cnamchaill’ [g.] c. 1150, etc.). We have already seen examples of cn- /kn-/ changing to cr- /kr-/, but in this case the change was from cn- /kn-/ to cl- /kl-/.

(These changes are not unique to Irish, and simply have to do with the sounds /l/, /n/, /r/ all being articulated in the same part of the mouth. Growing up in Wexford town, one of the present writers would have used chimley in place of standard chimney, which is a well-known example of this type of sound change in the English language. In the case of Cnámhchoill > Cleachoill, unusually for a close compound, the stress came to fall on the second syllable (‘cle choill’ 1840, /ˌklɛˈhɛil/ 1973). This seems to have provided further motivation for the development of /kn-/ to /kl-/.)

Note that whereas the Irish sources retain the original spelling even as late as the 17th century – ‘do chnámhcoill’ (1600), ‘Cnamchoill’ (1662) – the development in the local pronunciation is reflected in all the anglicized historical forms, including relatively early examples such as ‘Clyquyll’ (1588) in the Calendar of Ormond Deeds VI, p. 30) and ‘Clequill’ (1591) in Fiants (Eliz.) §5565. (This is a good example of the common scenario where anglicized historical forms have captured a sound change ignored by Irish sources.) Significantly, however, the local Irish form of the name recorded during the Ordnance Survey was ‘cle Choill’ (1840), confirming that the development to Cl- /kl-/ had occurred in the Irish version of the placename, and that the earlier anglicized spellings are not simply ‘corruptions’ as might initially be thought. Note that despite the development from Cnámhchoill to Cleachoill, the identity of the orginal name was still known: ‘The name of this Townland of Cleghile is pronounced in Irish nowadays Clé-Choill, but corruptly for Cnamh-Choill … celebrated as being on the western boundary of Ormond’ (Ordnance Survey Letters p.319).

As to meaning, in at least some instances the placename Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ may have commemorated the scene of a battle. The first famous Cnámhchoill already mentioned – possibly the place now called Crawhill / Creamhchoill in Co. Sligo – was without doubt the scene of a major encounter; and it may not be a coincidence that Cnámhchoill in Co. Tipperary – now Cleghile / Cleachoill – was situated on an important historical boundary. Another now-defunct placename in Co. Sligo, Cúil Chnámh ‘recess of bones’, was located near the boundary between the baronies of Tireragh, Leyny and Carbury at Beltra / Béal Trá ‘approach to (the) strand’. This was the landing-point of Fearsaid na Fionntrá ‘the sea-ford of the white strand’ at Trá Eothaile, once famous as the location of many battles and skirmishes, historical and mythological. (See C. Ó Crualaoich, ‘Causeways, battles, real and imaginary …’ in Sligo Field Club Journal, 2023. See also the Featured Theme for Week 4, July 2024.) Naghchoill / Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ (logainm.ie #40647) in Co. Monaghan is also located on the boundary between the baronies of Monaghan and Dartree. Another defunct placename recorded in the mid-17th century as ‘Cnakill’ was also located on a boundary, this time on the border of the barony of Bantry and Scarawalsh in Co. Wexford (Civil Survey of County Wexford, p. 200).

Apart from woods, however, a handful of other townland names also contain the element cnámh ‘bone’. The Gaeltacht placename Cnoc na gCnámh (logainm.ie #1399603) in Co. Mayo means ‘the hill of the bones’; the same name is anglicized Knocknagrave (logainm.ie #40810) in Co. Monaghan. We also have Cloghna / Cloch an Chnámha ‘the stone of the bone’ (logainm.ie #3118) in Co. Carlow. In Co. Cork, note the pronunciation of c(h)n- as c(h)l- in Coumaclavlig / Com an Chnámhlaigh ‘the recess of the place of bones?’ (possibly ‘the skinny person, skeleton’ or even ‘the bonfire’) (logainm.ie #8472). We have Scrahanagnave / Screathan na gCnámh ‘the scree-slope of the bones’ (logainm.ie #23151) in Co. Kerry and Meennagrauv / Mín na gCnámh ‘the level ground of the bones’ (logainm.ie #16556) in Co. Donegal.

Finally, there is a second townland called Meenagrauv / Mín na gCnámh in Co. Donegal (logainm.ie #16118; par. Kilteevoge), where John O’Donovan recorded the following local information – of particular interest to our discussion – during the Ordnance Survey in 1835:

After the defeat of Scarve Sollus (maidhm scairbhe solais) the Irish party betook themselves to the wilds of Glenfinn and passing through the townland of Srath na Bratóige they dropped their banner which gave it its name. They were afterwards pursued and overtaken at Meenagrauv where a most merciless slaughter was made of them so that their bodies were strewed on the ground like the trees of a felled wood. After the lapse of some years when peace was restored and some of the Irish allowed to settle in Glenfinn, the bones of the slain were found in this townland, gnawed by the wolves and bleaching to the sun and the northern blasts. These were collected and interred by their countrymen who in commemoration of the massacre … styled the place Mín na gCnámh.

‘Placenames of Inniskeel and Kilteevoge’, James O’Kane
Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Band 31 (1970)

A similar account was recorded (in Irish) in the Schools’ Collection some one hundred years later:

Nuair a bhí an chath thart i Srath na mBratóig chuaidh na Gáill síos agus throid siad cath eile ins an áit seo. Marbhadh cuid mhór daoine agus cuireadh iad ins an áit in ár troideadh an chath. Ins an am fá lathair nuair a bhíonns na daoine ag treabhadh an talaimh bíonn siad ag tochailt aníos cuid de na cnámha. Sin an fáth a tugadh Mín na gCnámh ar an áit. (BNS 1094, 027.)

Translation:

When the battle was over in Srath na Bratóige [#16182] the foreigners went down and fought another battle here. Many people were killed and were buried at the site where the battle was contested. Nowadays where people ar ploughing the land they regularly dig up some of the bones. That why the place is called Mín na gCnámh [the level ground of the bones].

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

Bones galore Naghill / Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’ (see logainm.ie #40647)

Bones galore
Naghill / Cnámhchoill ‘bone-wood’
(see logainm.ie #40647)