placenamesKilgarvan
Cill Gharbháin
Lewis linked the district’s transport problems with the difficulty of improving mountain and bog land.
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
- Cill Gharbháin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilgarvan · English · main form
Place & story
A route towards Macroom
In 1837 Samuel Lewis considered much of Kilgarvan’s mountain and bog land reclaimable, noting the abundance of limestone. He blamed the lack of roads for frustrating improvement. A new road towards Macroom had recently opened, and he expected it to help. His account records both an existing transport change and an anticipated agricultural benefit. [2]
Copper trials
Lewis also noted indications of copper at several places in the parish. Attempts to work it had been unsuccessful. This records exploratory activity without establishing a productive copper industry in Kilgarvan at that date. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kerry
- Barony
- Glanarought
- Coordinates
- 51.90488, -9.41745
- Mapped area
- 176.66 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1088 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilgarvan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilgarvan, Kerry: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-05-06. How this page was prepared.