placenames.ie
Townland

Waterville

An Coireán

A commemorative fountain, an estate residence and modest coastal buildings record life before and beside the cable industry.

Watercolour and fine ink illustration of The Butler Memorial Fountain at Waterville, County Kerry, as photographed in July 2018.
Illustration, The Butler Memorial Fountain at Waterville, County Kerry, as photographed in July 2018
Recorded locationWaterville51.82377° N · 10.16578° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie

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

  • An Coireán · Irish · main form
  • Waterville · English · main form

Place & story

The Butler fountain

A Celtic-cross-style limestone memorial and fountain bears the date 1887. Its plaque commemorates James Butler of Waterville and records that neighbours and friends erected it. The architectural inventory attributes the design to J. F. Fuller, retaining an attribution rather than a confirmed commission. The fountain joins a public monument with a practical water feature. [2]

Waterville House in the records

The University of Galway’s Landed Estates database identifies Waterville House as James Butler’s residence in both Leet’s 1814 directory and Lewis’s 1837 account. At Griffith’s Valuation, Caleb Chute leased him a property valued at £18. The database also records the Ordnance Survey’s 1840 description of a two-storey house in good repair. [3]

The earlier coastguard station

A pair of single-storey houses was built around 1830 as a coastguard station. By the architectural survey, the buildings served as a house and shop. The southern dwelling retained more of its earlier appearance, including slate roofing and sash windows with exposed boxes, while the northern building had been reroofed, extended and given replacement windows. [4]

Geographic information

Place type
Townland
County
Kerry
Barony
Iveragh
Civil parish
Dromod
Coordinates
51.82377, -10.16578
Mapped area
0.67 km²
Logainm ID
22350 ↗

People & family history

Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Waterville. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Butler Memorial Fountain, NIAH 21309804 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  3. Waterville House, property 1814 · University of Galway, Landed Estates database
  4. Waterville former coastguard station, NIAH 21309807 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  5. Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
  6. The Butler Memorial Fountain at Waterville, County Kerry, as photographed in July 2018 illustration: based on a Memorial to James Butler by N Chadwick. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2020-11-30. How this page was prepared.