Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Road - road/trackway
Coolnaha South, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Coolnaha South
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Porsh-a-Thoggarth
- Coordinates
- 53.80082, -8.77225
- SMR number
- MA093-010----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This road is not indicated on the 1838 OS 6-inch map. It is indicated by parallel dashed lines on the 1916 edition where it is named ‘Porsh-a-Thoggarth’. The most likely Irish form is Póirse an tSagairt or priest’s road. Dinneen's dictionary explains póirse as "a porch, an entry, a gate; a narrow road, passage or laneway; any narrow place, a hole..." (pers. comm. Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, Chief Placenames Officer, and Fiachra Mac Gabhann). It appears to have served as a mass path leading to an ecclesiastical complex which includes a cashel (MA093-014005), a children's burial ground (MA093-014002), a bullaun stone (MA093-014003) and a holy well (MA093-014006).
The road can no longer be traced along its full length, although sections are preserved in the line of extant field boundaries and farm tracks.
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 14 June 2022
Nearby in the register
- Barrow - embanked barrowunder 1 mi
- Moundunder 1 mi
- Cross-inscribed stoneunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.