placenamesRathconrath
Ráth Conarta
Nineteenth-century records connect Rathconrath with farming, canal construction and the institutions of the established church.
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
- Ráth Conarta · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rathconrath · English · main form
Place & story
Village and parish
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 dictionary distinguishes Rathconrath village’s 235 inhabitants from the wider parish population of 2,862. He places it on the road from Mullingar towards Athlone and records a police station in the village. The parish was predominantly pasture, with about a quarter of its land under tillage. His account describes an agricultural district with a small village centre. [2]
Stone for the Royal Canal
Lewis records extensive limestone quarrying in the parish. A quarry on the Mount D’Alton lands supplied stone for Royal Canal lock chambers and bridges along part of the waterway. He also notes corn mills at Meares Court and Ballinacarra. These details link the local economy with milling and major transport works, alongside the farming that occupied most of the surrounding land. [2]
Rathconrath House
The former rectory, now known as Rathconrath House, dates from about 1818. The architectural inventory describes a two-storey house with a projecting central gable and early sash windows surviving upstairs. Stone outbuildings with brick carriage arches enclose a rear courtyard. The nearby Church of Ireland church is recorded as ruinous. Together these buildings preserve traces of the parish’s nineteenth-century ecclesiastical landscape. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Westmeath
- Barony
- Rathconrath
- Civil parish
- Rathconrath
- Within
- Rathconrath
- Coordinates
- 53.53497, -7.51733 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413830 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rathconrath. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Rathconrath, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Rathconrath House, NIAH15401818 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-09-19. How this page was prepared.