placenamesGlen
An Gleann
At the northern end of Glen Lough, a small Donegal village preserves the memory of a combined shop and public house.
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 Gleann · Irish · main form · validated name
- Glen · English · main form
Place & story
At the head of the lake
Glen village stands at the northern end of Glen Lough, in the Lackagh catchment east of Creeslough. Inland Fisheries Ireland’s 2010 lake report places the water downstream of Lough Beagh, linked by the Owencarrow River, and within the Cloghernagore Bog and Glenveagh National Park Special Area of Conservation. The report recalls a former reputation for spring salmon and the damaging effects of disease in the 1960s. Surveys later recorded brown trout and Arctic char as important parts of the lake’s fish population. [2]
Mary’s of the Glen
The Olde Glen Bar’s own history dates the business to about 1768. It also explains the familiar name Mary’s of the Glen: Mary McLaughlin and her family owned the premises from 1970 to 2010. The name preserves a specific proprietor’s association with the village, rather than an anonymous claim of antiquity. The bar’s later development added a restaurant behind the older premises, continuing its role as a place where residents and visitors meet. [3]
Two counters and a cloth measure
The local Dunfanaghy community guide describes surviving evidence of the bar’s former life as a combined shop and pub. Its serving counter had two levels: a higher bar counter and a lower shop counter, the latter retaining a metal rule for measuring cloth. The guide associates the higher space with men drinking and the lower with women shopping. Those fittings record an older pattern of commerce and social separation within a single village building. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Donegal
- Barony
- Kilmacrenan
- Civil parish
- Mevagh
- Coordinates
- 55.12608, -7.81187 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 130372 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Glen. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Water Framework Directive Fish Stock Survey of Lakes: Glen Lough 2010 · Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Olde Glen Bar: history and Mary’s of the Glen · Olde Glen Bar
- Glen Village · Dunfanaghy community and local businesses
- Former post office, Glen, County Donegal illustration: based on a Former Post Office and Pub, Glen by Kenneth Allen. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0; adapted illustration distributed under the same licence.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.