placenamesKentstown
Baile an Cheantaigh
A carved effigy, an inscribed church tower and a small girls’ school connect several periods of Kentstown’s history.
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 an Cheantaigh · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Kentstown · English · main form
Place & story
Sir Thomas de Tuite’s effigy
A medieval effigy of Sir Thomas de Tuite survives inside Saint Mary’s Church. John Hunt’s study, reproduced in the archaeological record, describes the knight with gloves, spurs, a mantle and a dog beneath his feet. Hunt read the inscription as recording death on 2 June 1363, explicitly rejecting an alternative reading a century later. This identifies the commemorated man without establishing his birthplace or the precise location of his residence. [2]
The steeple’s named benefactor
A plaque on Saint Mary’s tower records that Sir James Quayle Somerville built the steeple in 1797. The church’s later architectural form includes paired round-headed windows and a rose window in its apsidal chancel. The inventory records remodelling around 1850. The dated tower inscription therefore anchors one part of a building whose different elements developed over time. [3]
School and estate in 1837
Lewis recorded a school founded and supported by Lady Maria Somerville, teaching about twelve girls in 1837. He also described recent enlargement of Somerville House, a new entrance lodge and ornamental treatment of the Nanny within the grounds. A constabulary station stood at Somerville. These details locate education and public services within the parish’s estate landscape, rather than describing the separate town of Navan. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Meath
- Barony
- Duleek Lower
- Coordinates
- 53.63253, -6.52414
- Mapped area
- 13.93 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1873 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kentstown. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kentstown effigy ME032-006002-, reproducing Hunt1974,vol1,206–207 · National Monuments Service; John Hunt, Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture1200–1600,1974
- Saint Mary’s Church Kentstown, NIAH14403202 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Kentstown, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-05-13. How this page was prepared.