Warning: This post might give you ‘The Skerries’

The Skerries in Co. Antrim are a group of islands off the coast of Portrush that take their name from Na Sceirí ‘the low, rocky islands’, a name which contains sceir, a borrowing from O.N. and certainly nothing to be sceired of!

The nights are, however, getting longer, and the chills are definitely in the air, and not just in terms of the weather! It’s fright season and just before we put the clocks back, there’s no better time to explore some place-names that may have a more sinister origin, be that in real life events, or in the imaginations of our predecessors.

Addressing first our Bloody past, previous atrocities are remembered in some place-names. Bloody Bridge spans the Bloody Bridge River in Co. Down from an infamous murder of Protestants during the rebellion of 1641, whereas Slaughterford Bridge on the road from Carrickfergus to Islandmagee, reflects the 1642 ‘massacre of the Gobbins’, the slaughter of several of the inhabitants of Islandmagee by Scottish troops quartered here. Some say in retaliation for atrocities committed on their friends during the previous week. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833-1840, many were put to death with great inhumanity:

‘A child was stabbed to death in its mother’s arms, and several women fell victim to the revenge of the murderers. One woman, who had fled to the verge of the Gobbins before an officer who pursued, seeing no chance of escape, clasped him in her(e) arms with him over the precipitous cliff, at the base of which both were dashed to pieces’

Bloodshed is similarly indicated in place-names elsewhere like Bloody Bog in Armagh, Bloody Hill in Antrim, Bloody Lane in Armagh, The Bloody Well and Bloody Oak in Tyrone, Bloody Pass in Fermanagh and more Bloody Bridges in Down and Tyrone. Equally as gruesome are Murder Holes in Derry and Antrim, a Murder Hill in Tyrone and a Murder Bridge in Dundonald that is said locally to be haunted by the ghost of Thomas O’ Gilmore, murdered on that very bridge in the early 1800s, and some say he and his wife still walk at the place of his murder, looking for a way to escape.

Deadman’s grave in Lockstown, Co. Antrim is the boggy find-spot of the skeletons of one young and one grown person, one in leather dress and with “the body in a wonderful state of preservation” and reportedly found in 1810. In a bog near Portglenone, a small island named Dead Island stands 5ft higher than the tract of bog by which it is surrounded, so named in consequence of being a burial ground for stillborn and unbaptised children, a previously common practice across Ireland not to bury ‘Páistí gan Baistiú (children without baptism)’ on consecrated land. More burials are referenced in Meenagorp (Mín na gCorp ‘mountain pasture of the bodies) in Co. Tyrone and Glencorp (Gleann Corp ‘glen of bodies’), one of the nine glens of Antrim which might refer to the site of a battle. Sticking with burials, there are many elements in place-names which reflect burial sites including the early element Tamlacht, which denoted a pagan burial site (often a plague-burial), rather than a burial site with Christian association. As a place-name element, it appears surprisingly often in the names of early ecclesiastical sites and most recognised as the origin of Tallaght in Dublin, but appearing most frequently in the north, mostly as Tamlaght like in Tamlaght Finlagan, which bears the name of the founding saint, Fionnlugh, brother of St. Fiontan and a disciple of Colm Cille. Tuaim ‘mound’ more often than not refers to a ‘burial mound’ An earlier name for Toome in Co. Antrim was Fearsaid Thuama ‘sand-bank ford of the pagan burial place’, referring to a former ford across the Lower Bann where it flows out of Lough Neagh here although the site of the burial place has not been identified. The village of Toome is sometimes known as Toomebridge, referring to the bridge which was built to replace the ford in 1785 (and has thankfully never seen any blood). The element Carn ‘cairn’ or ‘heap of stones’ is common not only in Ireland, but is also found in Scotland and Wales, and it often makes reference to a stone-built mound, especially a burial monument ranging from the prominently sited round cairns of Neolithic passage tombs, to ring cairns of the late Neolithic or early Bronze age. Interestingly, the names associated with these Cairns rarely if ever have any connection with the occupant of the monument. For example Maeve in the many Carn Méibhe is certainly not the person interred in Carmavy, Co. Antrim but the name (perhaps Méabh, queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology) attached by way of romantic fiction to give prestige to the cairn itself.

Blackskull in the townland of Ballygunaghan (Baile Uí Dhuinneagáin‘O’Donegan’s townland’), Co. Down was named from an inn with a black man’s head sign which from the end of the last century until recently was a post office. A macabre local story tells how a black man was beheaded and his skull mounted above the door of the inn. However, the anglicised component -skull in place-names might usually be an Anglicisation of scoil ‘school’, which is the case for the town of Skull in Co. Cork. Crocknaskull in Co. Down is probably Cnoc na Scoile ‘hill of the school’, and Skullmartin, also in Down could be ScoilMhártain ‘Martin’s school’, and while we can reveal that there is no sinister nature to these names, school, for many of us was certainly hellish!

The concept of Hell also features in place-names. Hell’s Hole in the townland of Gortmore near Magilligan point is a natural gulf through which a stream of water runs over the precipice. There is another Hell Hole in the townland of Aghalee, Co. Antrim close to the shore of Lough Neagh, which somewhat ironically, comes from Achadh Lí ‘field of beauty’. Staying in Hell, there is a Devil’s Coachroad in the Mourne Mountains which is a 150m high gully that tears a chunk out of the side of Slieve Beg. There is a Devil’s Port, which is a natural sea cave in the sandstone mass of Pans Rock near Ballycastle. The Devil’s slide runs down the face of Cavehill outside Belfast leading into ‘The Devil’s Punchbowl’ or ‘The Devil’s Cauldron’, a large hollow below the bottom cave where ancient Celtic farmers corralled their cattle. Another hollow which has been likened to a cauldron is in Glenwhirry, Co. Antrim from the Irish name Gleann an Choire ‘glen of the cauldron/whirlpool’, named after a deep pool beneath a waterfall near the source of the Glenwhirry river, in Skerrywhirry townland (Sceir an Choire ‘rocky hill of the cauldron’).

In Bellanamallard in Co. Fermanagh (Béal Átha na Mallacht ‘ford mouth of the curses’), St. Columcille is said to have placed a curse on the roosters here in the sixth century, although we typically associate the cursing with witches rather than saints. They too, have played a part in our past. Bullauns are stones with round basin shaped hollows on their surface. These hollows can be natural or artificial and their hollows are often attributed to the knees of saints that knelt in them to pray. However, one near Antrim called The Witch’s Stane is said to come from a witch who jumped from Antrim Round Tower and her knees sank into the stone leaving her kneeprint as a well in the stone. Witch Hill near Magilligan Point near Derry is the site of a possible prehistoric megalithic tomb recorded as “an artificial hill on top of which is a stone which was supported by 4 other stones which served as pillars, but now lying almost flat in a hole on the top of the hill”. Another witch in north Antrim is said to have fled along Coskemnacally (Coiscéim na Caillí ‘the witches step’) and breathed her last at Oghbristacree (Ucht Briste an Chroí ‘hill-breast’ of the heart break). This element cailleach can variously mean ‘nun, witch, hag’, and in place-names cailleach, usually refers to some supernatural figure. It appears in names like Gortnacally (Gort na Caillí ‘field of the hag/witch/nun’) in Fermanagh, Carnacally (Carn na Caillí ‘Cairn of the hag’/witch/nun) in Armagh and Baile na gCailleach ‘townland of the nuns or hags/witches’ which is the modern Galliagh just outside Derry. Witches (and possibly arguably hags and older ladies in general) are seldomly seen without a cat. And the cat doesn’t fall far from the witch in our place-names. Co. Armagh’s Crewcat derives from Cruach Cat ‘stack of the cats’, Castlecat in Antrim is Caiseal Cat‘stone ring-fort of the cats’ and Carnagat Carn na gCat ‘cairn of the cats’ appears as a place-name in both Cos Tyrone and Armagh. Apart from Banshees Well in Aghavea, Co. Fermanagh, the mythological figure the Banshee is notably absent from place-names, but Craignagat (Creag na gCat ‘rock of the cat’) on the north coast, is said to be named from the wailing sound of a Banshee, the existence of which is still believed by some in the locality. Apparently, those who have heard it have described it as having sounded “like a cat in distress”.

Aside from wailing cats and the Banshee of Fermanagh, supernatural creatures tend not to make a massive appearance in our place-names. That is except for Drumbest in Antrim which derives from Droim na bPiast ‘ridge of the (fabulous) beasts or monsters’. The second element in this name, piast usually means ‘worm’, but in the names of a number of lakes, can be associated with a common legend where the lake is said to be ‘inhabited by a demonical serpent’ which may well have been the case in Drumbest Lough. Our own Nessie!

Finishing up. while you might have not the fright you expected when we gave you ‘The Skerries’ above, beware of getting spooked in one of the four Bootowns in Ulster. Bootown actually contains the Scots element boo/bow from Old Norse bú ‘a homestead’ with the extended meaning of ‘livestock’, which is its current meaning in all mainland dialects of Scots.

And a final reminder to turn your clocks back this weekend. The Irish for ‘clock’, clog also means ‘bell’ and Dernaglug (Doire na gClog) might mean ‘oak-wood of the bells’. But, in the absence of any churches, clog (also ‘skull, head’) might apply metaphorically to a round bell-or skull-like hill (oak-wood of the (skull/bell-like) hills’), just beware of any hills that start ringing!