placenamesHerveyhill
Cnoc Airbhí
Herveyhill's history connects an eighteenth-century bishop's building programme with local schooling and the family of political economist Robert Torrens.
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
- Cnoc Airbhí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Herveyhill · English · main form
- Harvey Hill · English · main form · local name
Place & story
The rectory at Hervey Hill
James Wilson Kernohan's history of Kilrea and Tamlaght O'Crilly records the glebe house at Hervey Hill as a building commissioned by Frederick Hervey, the Earl Bishop of Derry, around 1774. It was increased by a storey in 1811. Historian Peter L Moore independently connects the house with Hervey's patronage: the Reverend Robert Torrens obtained the rectory in 1774 after a lengthy struggle to secure a parish living. [2] [4]
A school in the parish network
Greenlough parish's account of its earlier schools names Patrick Quinn as the Catholic schoolmaster at Hervey Hill. Its list places that school within a much wider educational network in Tamlaght O'Crilly, including schools at Bovedy, Innisrush and Drumagarner. The entry preserves a named teacher and a local institution alongside the better-documented history of the rectory; it does not establish that a surviving building was Quinn's school. [3]
Robert Torrens and the limits of a birth date
Moore places the birth of political economist Robert Torrens at his grandfather's Hervey Hill rectory in the winter of 1779–80. He cautions that lost parish registers prevent a more precise date, although 1780 appears widely in earlier accounts. Torrens later became a Royal Marines officer, an economic writer and a promoter of South Australian colonisation. Adelaide's River Torrens commemorates him, giving this small Derry locality a connection with Australia's colonial history. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Derry
- Barony
- Loughinsholin
- Civil parish
- Tamlaght O'Crilly
- Coordinates
- 54.92066, -6.61180 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 129756 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Herveyhill. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- The Parishes of Kilrea and Tamlaght O’Crilly: The Churches · James Wilson Kernohan; transcription hosted by Bann Valley Genealogy
- Schools: Tamlaght O’Crilly parish history · Greenlough Parish, Diocese of Derry
- Colonel Robert Torrens: Some Bicentennial Observations, Journal 8, 1980, page 69 onwards · Peter L Moore; Historical Society of South Australia
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2010-04-19. How this page was prepared.