placenamesNeale
An Éill
The landscape around Neale preserves more than its celebrated follies: a ruined house wing and an eighteenth-century church record changing households and patronage.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- An Éill · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Neale · English · main form
Place & story
The remaining wing of Neale House
The National Inventory dates Neale House to 1737. An L-shaped, two-storey wing survives from a house largely demolished in 1939. Limestone corner stones, traces of its slate roof and brick chimney stacks preserve parts of its construction. The inventory also identifies improvements made in 1908 for John Edward Deane Browne, fifth Baron Kilmaine, attributing their design to Cecil Arthur Fowler. That attribution remains qualified rather than a securely documented commission. [2]
The Cromie household
For much of the first half of the nineteenth century, Neale House was occupied by the Reverend James Cromie and his family. Cromie was the second Baron Kilmaine’s brother-in-law, linking the resident household with the Browne owners through marriage. The University of Galway’s estate research records a house valuation of £25 at Griffith’s Valuation and locates the property in Nealepark, within Kilmolara parish and the Neale electoral division. [3]
The roofless church at Lecarrowkilleen
Neale’s older Church of Ireland building dates from 1778. Its entrance tower rises in three stages, ending in stepped battlements, while pointed openings give the small church a Georgian Gothic character. The National Inventory records it in use in 1911, disused by 1945 and ruined by 1976. The surviving shell retains its limestone window dressings and thick walls, but the roof and window fittings had disappeared when the building was surveyed. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Neale. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Neale House: NIAH 31312101 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- The Neale: Landed Estates property 452 · University of Galway, Landed Estates Database
- Neale Church, Lecarrowkilleen: NIAH 31312105 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- The roofless Neale Church at Lecarrowkilleen, County Mayo, as photographed in August 2016 illustration: based on a Church Ruin by Andrew Woodvine. 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 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.