placenames1901 census
104People recorded
25Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
Explore the 1901 records ↗Coole
An Chúil
Coole’s townland contains a settlement recorded by nineteenth-century gazetteers and a western landscape shaped by commercial peat extraction.
Recorded locationCoole53.70521° N · 7.38701° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie
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
- An Chúil · Irish · main form
- Coole · English · main form
Place & story
Two annual fairs
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account describes Coole on the road between Castlepollard and Granard, with about seventy houses and 341 inhabitants. Its two small fairs took place on 20 May and 20 November. These figures concern the settlement rather than every household in the surrounding townland. [2]
A town within the townland
The 1901 census explicitly places Coole town within the townland of the same name, estimating the town’s area at twenty-five acres. It returns 139 residents for the town and another 104 for the rural remainder. The distinction preserves two different scales of local life within one named land unit. [3]
The worked bog
A 2013 environmental assessment describes the western peat-working unit in Coole townland, south of the R395 and westward towards the River Inny. Its account dates the wider operation’s beginnings to the late 1950s, commercial drainage to 1982, and Westland Horticulture’s occupation to the mid-1990s. Those dates cover the multi-townland operation. [4]
Geographic information
People & family history
Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.
1911 census
101People recorded
21Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
- Sullivan 17
- Cunningham 9
- Rock 7
- White 7
- Donohoe 6
1926 census
91People recorded
22Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
- Sullivan 11
- Monaghan 10
- Mulvey 10
- Gilsenan 8
- Murtagh 7
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Coole. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Coole, a village: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Census of Ireland 1901: County Westmeath, Coole DED and townland table · Census Commissioners for Ireland; CSO archive
- Westland Horticulture peat harvesting assessment, July 2013: archaeological assessment · Westland Horticulture; assessment lodged with Environmental Protection Agency
- Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Peat working near Coole, County Westmeath, as photographed in July 2012 illustration: based on a Bog and peat extraction by Richard Webb. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2011-10-24. How this page was prepared.