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
Cionn Sáile· Irish · main form · validated name
Kinsaley· English · main form
Place & story
People & connections
The ruined church and its burials
The old graveyard on Chapel Road contains the remains of Kinsaley’s earlier church. Fingal’s burial-ground history dates its earliest recorded headstone to 1747 and identifies a vault inside the ruins as the burial place of antiquarian Austin Cooper, who lived at Abbeville. Members of the Beresford family, earlier residents of Abbeville, are also buried here. These associations connect the small churchyard with successive households in the surrounding countryside.[2]
A house of 1736
Kinsaley House is a red-brick residence dated 1736 by the architectural inventory. Its five-bay front rises above a basement, with a dormer attic behind the parapet and screen walls extending to either side. The survey recorded substantial original interior detail, including joinery, shaped architraves and rococo plasterwork. A farmyard complex to the north and west places this formal house within an agricultural setting, rather than treating it solely as a decorative frontage.[3]
Saint Nicholas of Myra
Saint Nicholas of Myra’s Catholic Church represents another layer of the historic settlement. The architectural survey dates it to about 1840 and describes a cruciform church with a tower and spire to the east. A statue of the Virgin occupies a niche in its entrance front, above a granite-framed doorway. Slate roofs, granite coping and windows with coloured-glass margins give this relatively compact building much of its architectural character.[4]
Evidence beneath later development
Archaeological testing in Kinsaley townland in 2014 examined land near the medieval church. Dermot Nelis’s report records five trenches and a small possible pit containing a sherd of medieval pottery. The feature extended beyond one trench and was initially left in place, with further investigation recommended. No other archaeological features appeared during the testing. The report adds a modest piece of physical evidence for medieval activity without establishing a large settlement from a single find.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Kinsaley — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Kinsaley, Fingal
Published census settlement populations
264people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames