placenamesDonaghmore
Domhnach Mór
The small Kildare parish preserves an ecclesiastical enclosure and the original setting of a stone now held in Dublin.
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
- Domhnach Mór · Irish · main form
- Donaghmore · English · main form
Place & story
The cemetery at Grangewilliam
Donaghmore cemetery, also known as Grangewilliam, lies south of Carton across the Royal Canal and railway. A 2024 Maynooth University account identifies a surviving ecclesiastical enclosure and dates the church ruins to the fourteenth century. The cemetery therefore preserves several periods of religious use within a small area. [2]
From a graveyard to a museum collection
Lord Walter FitzGerald discovered an ogam-inscribed sandstone at Donaghmore cemetery in 1902 and added it to his archaeological collection at Carton. After his death the stone entered the National Museum of Ireland. Its museum reference is 1931:291; the surviving cemetery and the stone’s present collection should be distinguished. [2]
Reading a worn inscription
Professor David Stifter’s 2024 account probably dates the inscription to the sixth century. It identifies a personal name, Nad-Froích, and the kin group of Trénlug, while marking reconstructed letters. Both parts run upwards along different edges of the stone. Damage and wear make this a scholarly reading with uncertainties, rather than an unqualified account of a known person’s life. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kildare
- Barony
- Salt North
- Coordinates
- 53.37227, -6.55337
- Mapped area
- 1.14 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1165 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Donaghmore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- A Maynooth Heritage: the Donaghmore Ogam Stone, September2024 · Professor David Stifter, Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.