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
Aird Mhór· Irish · main form · validated name
Ardmore· English · main form
Place & story
Buildings from different centuries
Ardmore's cathedral, round tower and oratory occupy the monastic site above the village. The Office of Public Works dates the cathedral mainly to the period between 1170 and 1210 and the round tower to the twelfth century. The cathedral's carved Romanesque panels include biblical scenes such as Adam and Eve and the Judgement of Solomon. The oratory, traditionally associated with Declan's burial, was renovated in 1716. These surviving buildings belong to later phases than the saint's traditional fifth-century foundation.[3]
Folklore & tradition
The bell that travelled on a stone
The Life of Saint Declan, translated by Patrick Power and published in 1914, tells a remarkable foundation story. A follower forgets Declan's bell on a rock before their party sails for Ireland. After the saint prays, the rock follows across the sea carrying the bell. It then leads the boat to the place where Declan is to establish his community.[4]
Folklore & tradition
The shore and the pattern
Power's introduction also describes devotional customs at the large boulder on Ardmore's shore. Pilgrims passed through the narrow gap beneath it in the belief that the practice brought healing. Lewis had already recorded gatherings at the stone on 24 July, Declan's feast day, in 1837. These dated descriptions attest to pilgrimage and belief around a real feature of the coast. They do not establish the truth of a miracle or make a medical claim about the stone.[2][4]
People & connections
Molly Keane in Ardmore
The novelist and playwright Molly Keane lived in Ardmore until her death in 1996. Waterford's Arts Office records that her first ten novels and four plays appeared under the name M. J. Farrell. Good Behaviour, published under her own name in 1981, brought a renewed readership and a Booker Prize shortlisting. The council's annual creative-writing award, established in 1998, commemorates that literary life. Her residence gives Ardmore a precise modern literary connection alongside its much older sacred stories and monuments.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Ardmore — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ardmore, Waterford
Published census settlement populations
434people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
Ardmore Round Tower illustration: based on a reference by Stackc. AI watercolour/ink adaptation; clutter removed, margins added and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
placenames
