placenamesBallymascanlan
Baile Mhic Scanláin
Lewis recorded a giant’s name in a story about a great stone monument in the parish.
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
- Baile Mhic Scanláin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballymascanlan · English · main form
Place & story
A giant attached to a monument
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account of Ballymascanlan describes a great capstone supported by three upright stones. He records its local name as the Giant’s Load and a tradition that a giant called Porrah Baugh Mac Shaggcan carried it there. The name and deed belong to the recorded story; they do not explain the monument’s actual construction. Lewis’s notice preserves this particular version without supplying an archaeological date for the structure. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Louth
- Barony
- Dundalk Lower
- Barony
- Dundalk Upper
- Coordinates
- 54.03718, -6.32865 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 51.73 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1686 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballymascanlan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ballymascanlon: 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.