placenamesRoscommon
Ros Comáin
The former workhouse at Ardsallagh Beg preserves institutional buildings above ground, while recent excavation has clarified a burial area within its boundary.
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
- Ros Comáin · Irish · main form
- Roscommon · English · main form
Place & story
A complex built for the Poor Law
Roscommon Union Workhouse was built in 1842. The architectural inventory tentatively attributes its plan to George Wilkinson. Its surviving complex includes the main workhouse, a fever hospital, the master’s house and a chapel. Limestone walls, gabled projections and separate buildings preserve the layout of an institution intended to accommodate different functions. The inventory also records a January 1847 notice stating that no further applicants for relief could be admitted. [2]
A boundary rediscovered
In September 2025, archaeologist Maeve McCormick assessed a green space beside the former workhouse. Her report describes a large grave cut and human remains left in place. Testing found burials inside the nineteenth-century southern boundary wall, with none in the small area tested immediately outside it. Their relationship to the wall suggested an association with the workhouse. The investigation also corrected an earlier trench interpretation: redeposited grave fill had been mistaken for undisturbed ground in 2022. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Roscommon
- Barony
- Ballintober South
- Coordinates
- 53.62965, -8.18330
- Mapped area
- 39.77 km²
- Logainm ID
- 2095 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Roscommon. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Sacred Heart Hospital, former Roscommon Union Workhouse, NIAH31817052 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- 2025:348 Sacred Heart Home, Ardsallagh Beg; licence25E0433ext. · Maeve McCormick, Archer Heritage Planning
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.