placenamesDunurlin
Dún Urlann
Lewis described landmarks around Smerwick without providing a modern survey of their remains.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Dún Urlann · Irish · main form · validated name
- Dunurlin · English · main form
Place & story
Names used along the shore
Dunurlin parish lay on the western side of Smerwick harbour in Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account. He recorded three coastal hills known to sailors as the Three Sisters and identified Dunurlin Head as the low promontory between Smerwick and Ferriter’s Creek, forming the bay’s western point. These named features gave his description a coastal frame beyond the scattered farmland, mountain pasture and bog of the parish. [2]
Fort del Or in 1837
On Smerwick’s northwestern side, Lewis described the remains of Fort del Or as a curtain sixty feet long, a ditch and two bastions. The measurement concerns the curtain’s length, rather than the height of a wall or the area of the fort. His description records what was reported in 1837; it does not establish how much of each feature survives today. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kerry
- Barony
- Corkaguiny
- Coordinates
- 52.17059, -10.42814 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 19.42 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1069 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Dunurlin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Dunurlin, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.