placenamesKillykergan
Coill Uí Chiaragáin
Small documentary traces connect Killykergan with Garvagh’s ministerial rounds, a long-running post office and a family remembered from Boston.
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
- Coill Uí Chiaragáin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Killykergan · English · main form
Place & story
On the minister’s visiting round
Killykergan appears in Garvagh church visitation records as early as 1796. Richard John Torrens’s reconstruction of the visiting itinerary places it on the round dated 2 March, alongside Inshallen, Mettican, Cah and Lisboy. Later lists use spellings including Killkergan and Killy Kergin. These records show the locality participating in a religious network that crossed townland boundaries, with a minister travelling between scattered rural households. [2]
A century of postal service
The Great Britain Philatelic Society’s county listing dates Killykergan post office to 1873, under Coleraine. It records a rubber handstamp in 1893 and closure in 1986. That chronology gives the locality more than a century of recorded postal service. The listing identifies changes in the office’s existence and postal equipment, rather than providing a history of its premises or establishing who served as postmaster throughout those years. [3]
The Boyds’ connection with Boston
A memorial at Aghadowey parish church records another outward connection. Lavonne Bradfield’s gravestone transcription identifies John and Thomas Boyd of Boston as the sons commemorating their parents, Jane and Thomas Boyd. Jane died in 1852; Thomas, identified with Killykergan, died in 1859. The inscription links a family associated with this small locality to relatives across the Atlantic, without revealing when or why the sons left Ireland. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Derry
- Barony
- Coleraine
- Civil parish
- Aghadowey
- Within
- Killykergan
- Coordinates
- 55.01134, -6.68684 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413328 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Killykergan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Garvagh Church Visitation Lists: itineraries · Richard John Torrens, Bann Valley Genealogy
- County Londonderry Post Offices · Great Britain Philatelic Society
- Aghadowey Parish Church: graveyard records, memorial207 · Lavonne Bradfield, transcription hosted by Bann Valley Genealogy
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2011-12-06. How this page was prepared.