placenamesAnnamoe
Áth na mBó
The Avonmore crossing, an old chapel and a writer’s remembered accident give Annamoe a history larger than its small village centre.
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
- Áth na mBó · Irish · main form · validated name
- Annamoe · English · main form
Place & story
The bridge after the storm
Annamoe’s four-arched road bridge was built around 1990 after the earlier crossing was swept away in 1986. Rubble masonry and dressed granite around the arches give the replacement a traditional appearance. Its segmental arches rest on piers that the architectural inventory considers possible survivals from the previous structure. Railings alternate with masonry piers along the parapets. The crossing therefore combines a late twentieth-century rebuilding with the form and materials familiar from older Irish bridges. [2]
Laurence Sterne and the millrace
Laurence Sterne remembered staying for about six months at Annamoe as a child, with a clergyman named Fetherson. In the autobiographical account reproduced by local historian Martin Timmons, Sterne recalled falling through a millrace while the mill was operating and being rescued unharmed. He also remembered crowds coming to see the child who had survived. The episode belongs to the early life of the future author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey. [3]
A chapel serving the surrounding district
Annamoe once housed both the Catholic parish priest and the Protestant rector. Timmons records that the Catholic chapel was burned during the troubles around 1798, then rebuilt and used for another eighty years. Its final Mass was celebrated on 17 August 1879. The Catholic parish priest continued living in Annamoe until moving to Roundwood in the 1890s. These changes shifted an important part of the district’s religious life away from the small settlement. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Wicklow
- Barony
- Ballinacor North
- Civil parish
- Derrylossary
- Coordinates
- 53.02892, -6.25589 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 128801 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Annamoe. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Annamoe Bridge, architectural inventory 16401805 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Long ago in Annamoe · Martin Timmons, 1988; Vartry History and Heritage Forum
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.