placenamesMoyfenrath Lower
Maigh Fionnráithe Íochtarach
Lewis described how a new county gaol organised cells, exercise yards and access to its chapel.
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
- Maigh Fionnráithe Íochtarach · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Moyfenrath Lower · English · main form
Place & story
Five ranges around a governor’s house
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 Trim account records a county gaol erected in 1834 for £26,000. Five ranges of buildings radiated around a circular governor’s house, with exercise yards between them. Bridges connected the wards with a chapel in the central building’s upper storey. Lewis reported room for 140 prisoners in separate cells, hospitals for men and women, and a school where adults attended for three hours daily. These details describe the nineteenth-century institution rather than a present prison service. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Moyfenrath Lower. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Trim: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-09-19. How this page was prepared.