placenamesEighter
Íochtar
Eighter’s early census and survey records reveal a working rural community alongside a house associated with the Headfort estate.
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
- Íochtar · Irish · main form · validated name
- Eighter · English · main form
Place & story
Work recorded in 1821
The surviving 1821 census, transcribed by Cavan Townlands under the spelling Eitor, records more than farming. John Martin appears as a schoolmaster, with linen weavers and flax spinners in his household. Elsewhere it lists a blacksmith, shoemakers, apprentices and labourers. Flax spinning recurs across numerous households, documenting work carried out alongside agriculture rather than an economy represented solely by the larger estate house. [2]
The landscape in the survey
The Ordnance Survey Name Books of 1836 described Eighter as property of the Marquis of Headfort. Their account distinguished bog and planted ground within a townland of roughly 719 acres. The road between Oldcastle and Virginia crossed it, together with a smaller road. Surveyors also noted an ancient fort close to that main route and the Reverend Robert Sargent's residence in the northern part of the townland. [2]
Eighter House
Eighter House appears on the Ordnance Survey map published in 1837, set within a small demesne near Lough Ramor. Henry Sargent occupied it in the mid-nineteenth century, when its buildings were valued at £16. By the 1870s it was home to the doctor John Alexander Johnston. The University of Galway's Landed Estates database also identifies records concerning Eighter among Cavan Library's archival collections, providing leads for the property's later history. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Cavan
- Barony
- Castlerahan
- Civil parish
- Munterconnaught
- Coordinates
- 53.82036, -7.13440 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412206 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Eighter. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Eighter:1821censusand1836NameBooks · Cavan Townlands,transcriptions of historical records
- Eighter,property5648 · University of Galway,Landed Estates
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.