placenames.ie
County

Antrim

Aontroim

Antrim’s landscape connects Belfast Lough and Lough Neagh with the north coast, while deep glens cut through its uplands.

Recorded locationAntrim54.82554° N · 6.14332° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Approximate recorded location · Logainm.ieOpen in OpenStreetMap ↗

The name

A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.

Recorded forms

  • Aontroim · Irish · main form · validated name
  • Antrim · English · main form

Place & story

Water around the county

Antrim stretches between Belfast Lough, Lough Neagh, the Bann and the northern and eastern seas. Lewis’s 1837 county account describes a landscape shaped by lake shores, a river boundary and a long coast. [2]

A glen in detail

At Glenariff, DAERA records streams, waterfalls, cliffs and scree beneath a basalt escarpment. Ash and hazel woodland occupy parts of the protected glen. [3]

Folklore & tradition

The swans on the Sea of Moyle

In P. W. Joyce’s translation of the Children of Lir, the four children spend three hundred years as swans on the Sea of Moyle, between Ireland and Scotland. Their sea exile follows a spell placed upon them by their stepmother. The harsh waters supply the story’s northern setting. This is a literary legend connected with the channel off Antrim, not an account of historical people or an event confined within the county boundary. [4]

Geographic information

Place type
County
County
Antrim
Coordinates
54.82554, -6.14332 (approximate)
Mapped area
3,095.35 km²
Logainm ID
100000 ↗

People & family history

Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.

1926 census

This year is outside the available dataset’s coverage. This does not indicate a population of zero.

Explore this county

Up to 50 places per page, ordered by name.

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Antrim. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. County Antrim — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
  3. Glenariff Area of Special Scientific Interest
  4. P. W. Joyce, Old Celtic Romances: The Fate of the Children of Lir (1920 edition)
  5. Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.