placenamesRathmoylan
Ráth Mhaoláin
Lewis described livelihoods and sea caves along the Waterford parish’s shore.
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
- Ráth Mhaoláin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rathmoylan · English · main form
Place & story
Work beside the cliffs
Rathmoylan and Ballymacaw were chiefly fishing communities in Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account of Rathmoylan parish. He attributed the uncertainty of their occupation to the rocky coast, placing the villages within the same exposed maritime setting south of Dunmore. The cliffs contained several caves that he ascribed to the sea’s action. His parish entry also records about seventy children in two private schools altogether, though it does not name the teachers or locate the individual schoolhouses. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rathmoylan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Rathmoylan, 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.