placenamesRathmore
An Ráth Mhór
Rathmore’s earthwork and surviving manor map connect medieval landholding with later church and school buildings in east Kildare.
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 Ráth Mhór · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rathmore · English · main form
Place & story
Burials beneath the motte
Rathmore’s large, flat-topped mound contains evidence of more than one period of use. Archaeologist Eoin Halpin’s account records a stone-lined coffin with an extended adult burial and other burials beneath a circular arrangement of rounded stones. Rathmore became the headquarters of a Fitzgerald manor in the Middle Ages, when the mound was probably adapted as a motte castle. The report distinguishes these earlier discoveries from its own 1993 testing at Rathmore House, which found little likelihood of surviving archaeology in the proposed building area. [2]
A manor mapped in 1669
A coloured survey map dated 1669 preserves the numbered land divisions of the Manor of Rathmore in the Barony of Naas. Acquired by Kildare County Archives in poor condition in 2019, it was subsequently conserved and digitised. Names attached to its plots include Cheevers, Eustace, Sutton, Handcock and Allen, corresponding substantially with those in the Books of Survey and Distribution for Rathmore parish. Its decorative compass and carefully separated plots combine visual detail with a record of local landholding. [3]
Saint Columcille’s church
Saint Columcille’s Church of Ireland dates from 1766. Its compact Gothic form has lancet openings and a square tower topped by unusually slender corner pinnacles. Renovation around 1980 included reroofing and renewed wall finishes. The church stands in landscaped grounds southwest of the village, with an enclosed graveyard containing memorials from different periods. An early wrought-iron gateway marks the roadside entrance, adding a smaller piece of craftsmanship to the church and burial-ground setting. [4]
From a one-teacher school to new classrooms
Rathmore National School was officially recognised in 1837, beginning as a one-teacher girls’ school with a teacher’s residence. A new two-teacher building opened in 1965. After Kilteel school closed in 1968, children travelled to Rathmore, where a third classroom followed in 1969. Further growth brought extensions and temporary accommodation. Construction of an eight-classroom school on an adjacent site began in June 2004; pupils and staff moved into Scoil Chéile Chríost in September 2005. The school’s history traces the practical effects of changing settlement and enrolment. [5]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Kildare
- Barony
- Naas North
- Civil parish
- Rathmore
- Within
- Rathmore East
- Within
- Rathmore West
- Coordinates
- 53.22175, -6.56254 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412379 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rathmore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- 1993:135 Rathmore, Kildare, licence 93E 0077 · Eoin Halpin, A.D.S. Ltd., Excavations.ie
- A survey of the Manor of Rathmore in the Barony of Naas, 1669 · Karel Kiely, Kildare County Archives, 18 July 2024
- Saint Columcille’s Church, Rathmore: NIAH 11813002 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Rathmore National School 1821–2010: school history · Scoil Chéile Chríost, Rathmore National School
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.