placenamesMoynalty
Maigh nEalta
The Farrell estate’s rebuilding gave Moynalty its distinctive street, while the bridge and threshing museum preserve older connections with farming and river power.
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
- Maigh nEalta · Irish · main form · validated name
- Moynalty · English · main form
Place & story
A village on one side
The Farrell estate rebuilt Moynalty in 1825–26, arranging its houses along one side of the street. Meath County Council’s heritage trail connects that layout with the local expression ‘all to one side like Moynalty’. The rebuilding also provided separate boys’ and girls’ schools in upper-floor rooms, both used until 1938. The boys’ school occupied rent-free estate premises, with its playground in a meadow across the street; the girls reached theirs by a rear balcony and walkway. [2]
The river crossing
Moynalty Bridge predates the nineteenth-century rebuilding. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates the six-arch crossing to about 1750. Rubble limestone walls, dressed arch stones and pointed cutwaters give the bridge its constructional character. One cutwater rises to parapet level because it originally provided a refuge for pedestrians. The inventory identifies the bridge as part of a larger riverside group that includes downstream weirs, a mill race and a sluice gate. [3]
Keeping farming skills in view
The Steam Threshing Festival began in 1976, developing a collection that grew to more than a thousand agricultural, household and commercial objects. Its purpose-built museum at Donore, on the festival grounds, brings machinery together with evidence of rural trades and domestic life. The organisers’ Heritage Week account lists a portable steam engine, horse-drawn equipment, a threshing machine and a printing press, alongside a shoemaker’s shop display, early radios and a country kitchen. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Meath
- Barony
- Kells Lower
- Civil parish
- Moynalty
- Coordinates
- 53.79141, -6.89219 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414676 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Moynalty. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Moynalty Heritage Trail · Meath County Council
- Moynalty Bridge, NIAH 14309030 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Farm and Country Life Museum Open Day · Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival / Heritage Council
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.