placenamesGortymadden
Gort Uí Mhadaín
Gortymadden’s layered public-house building and nineteenth-century records connect a rural crossroads with farming, trade and the Pelly family.
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
- Gort Uí Mhadaín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Gortymadden · English · main form
- Gurtymadden · English · main form · local name
Place & story
Two periods in one building
The public-house building at Gortymadden combines a two-storey frontage dating from around 1920 with an older three-storey house behind it, dated around 1820 by the architectural inventory. Hipped slate roofs, brick chimney stacks and limestone dressings connect the different blocks. Decorative panels enliven the upper front wall, while moulded window surrounds and a projecting bay show how the roadside building acquired a more elaborate appearance as it changed use. [2]
Cornelius Pelly at the crossroads
Research into Kiltormer’s old graveyard identifies Cornelius, also recorded as Connor, Pelly as the mid-nineteenth-century occupant of Gortymadden’s largest house. Griffith’s Valuation lists him leasing the house, outbuildings and thirty acres from James Smith. He also received rent from the police barracks across the crossroads. An 1862 newspaper report records the sale of more than two hundred of his cattle at Loughrea’s May fair, indicating the scale of his farming enterprise. [3]
A small townland community in 1901
The 1901 census recorded seven houses and thirty-six residents in Gortymadden townland. Farming and agricultural labour figured prominently, while James V. Pelly combined farming with shopkeeping. His household occupied a twelve-room house, a marked contrast with the two-room dwellings recorded for several other families. Most roofs were made from perishable materials, with only two houses recorded under the census category covering slate, iron or tiles. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Galway
- Barony
- Longford
- Civil parish
- Abbeygormacan
- Within
- Gortymadden
- Coordinates
- 53.19379, -8.40401 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413582 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Gortymadden. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Gortymadden, architectural inventory 30410612 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Kiltormer Old Graveyard: Cornelius Pelly and family · Burke’s East Galway
- Gortymadden townland research: census1901 · Galway County Heritage Office
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-03-19. How this page was prepared.