placenamesArdagh
Ardach
Buildings within the Longford parish record changing educational provision and the survival of an estate entrance after its house disappeared.
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
- Ardach · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Ardagh · English · main form
Place & story
From parochial school to community centre
Dean Richard Murray erected Ardagh’s two-storey parochial school in 1830. It included accommodation for the master and mistress. A plaque records its transfer to the Board of National Education in 1892 and its use as Ardagh Demesne National School until 1938, when pupils moved to Saint Mel’s. The old building later became a community centre. Architect Patrick Shaffrey designed its 1972 extension, giving an educational building a further communal use. [2]
The gates at Richfort
Northwest of Ardagh, an entrance built around 1820 survives from the demolished Richfort estate house. Square limestone piers support double cast-iron gates, with stone wheel guards protecting their bases. The entrance is recessed and angled towards the southeast. The architectural inventory notes that a gate lodge, shown on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century maps, has also disappeared. The surviving masonry and ironwork mark an approach whose principal buildings have been lost. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ardagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- ArdaghDemesneNationalSchool,NIAH13312013 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Richfortgateway,NIAH13401904 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-05-28. How this page was prepared.