placenamesLea
Lé
Lewis distinguished an existing canal crossing from an unrealised possibility for the Barrow.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Lé · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Lea · English · main form
Place & story
Two different waterways
The Grand Canal passed through Lea parish for three miles in Samuel Lewis’s account of 1837. The Barrow formed its north-eastern and north-western boundaries, separating the parish from Kildare and King’s County, now Offaly. Lewis suggested that the river could be made navigable between Portarlington and Monastereven at little expense. This was his proposal, rather than a report that the river route had been completed. [2]
Stone from the parish
Lewis also recorded extensive quarrying of good-quality limestone in Lea. Beneath its generally level farmland he identified limestone, limestone gravel and reddish sand. His survey therefore describes an existing mineral industry alongside the parish’s transport connections. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Laois
- Barony
- Portnahinch
- Coordinates
- 53.12839, -7.11559
- Mapped area
- 74.91 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1447 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Lea. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Lea: 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.