placenamesBoston
Boston’s nineteenth-century village setting survives in written descriptions, while All Saints’ Church and nearby Skaghard reveal different uses of local stone.
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
- Boston · Irish · main form
- Boston · English · main form
Place & story
A hamlet in a lake landscape
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of 1845 called Boston the principal hamlet of Kilkeedy parish. Its description placed the settlement within a rocky landscape broken by Lough Buneah and smaller lakes, with the Corofin–Gort road passing through the parish. This contemporary account supplies a useful historical setting for the village without transferring the population figures for the whole parish to Boston itself. [2]
All Saints’ Church
All Saints' Catholic Church stands at Kylecreen. The Clare Heritage Office dates it to about 1850 and records re-roofing between 1989 and 1991. Its gabled front and chancel have groups of three windows. The glass is coloured and frosted, rather than painted with figures or scenes: a useful distinction in a church included in the county's survey of stained glass. [3]
Skaghard in the surrounding limestone
Nearby Skaghard Castle stands in Carrownagoul amid limestone crags, hazel and blackthorn. Frank Brew's1998 local history described a compact five-storey tower whose west wall alone remained intact. He noted the unusual absence of vaulting above the third floor and possible storage spaces at the wall's base. References in O'Brien deeds and correspondence document the castle even where a continuous building history is lacking. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Boston. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilkeedy: Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845 · Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland; Clare Libraries
- Boston, All Saints’ Catholic Church · John Glynn, County Clare Heritage Office
- Towerhouses of Kilkeedy –1998 · Frank Brew, The Parish of Kilkeedy; Kilkeedy Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2020-08-28. How this page was prepared.