placenamesThe Heath
An Fraoch Mór
Bypass excavations revealed prehistoric activity in a landscape also used for racing and golf.
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 Fraoch Mór · Irish · main form · validated name
- The Heath · English · main form
Place & story
What the bypass uncovered
Archaeologist Valerie J Keeley investigated The Heath in 1993 ahead of the Portlaoise bypass. Excavation exposed pits, charcoal spreads, plough marks and more than 400 stakeholes, some arranged in four parallel lines. Finds included flint tools and waste, Grooved Ware and Cordoned Urn pottery, and charred grain. [2]
From racecourse to fairways
The present Heath Golf Club was founded in 1930, although its institutional history records earlier golf on the common. Its nine-hole course expanded to eighteen holes in 1971. The clubhouse occupies the position of the old racecourse grandstand; rebuilt in 1991, it formally opened in August 1992. The club identifies a surviving nineteenth-century racing track beside the first fairway. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Laois
- Barony
- Maryborough East
- Civil parish
- Kilteale
- Civil parish
- Straboe
- Within
- Greatheath
- Within
- Ballydavis
- Coordinates
- 53.05715, -7.22436 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 131239 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — The Heath. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- 1993:140 — The Heath, Laois, licence 93E0023 · Valerie J Keeley
- History of the Club — The Heath Golf Club · The Heath Golf Club
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.