placenamesCastlebrack
An Caisleán Breac
Lewis’s parish account connects the ruined Dunne stronghold with nearby nineteenth-century schooling.
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 Caisleán Breac · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Castlebrack · English · main form
Place & story
The castle beside the county boundary
Samuel Lewis described Castlebrack parish in 1837 as lying beside the river he called the Oweness, near the boundary between Queen’s County and King’s County, now Laois and Offaly. He attributed the castle to the Dunne family and recorded it as a ruined stronghold formerly surrounded by a moat. His entry does not give a building date or name an individual founder. [2]
Schools at Clonaghedor
Lewis placed the Catholic chapel at Clonaghedor townland and recorded a national school there with about thirty boys and forty girls. He separately listed a hedge school with about thirty boys and twenty girls. The two sets of figures distinguish separate forms of schooling; they are not successive attendance totals for one institution. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Laois
- Barony
- Tinnahinch
- Coordinates
- 53.17314, -7.36924
- Mapped area
- 37.69 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1425 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Castlebrack. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Castlebrack, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.