placenamesArklow
An tInbhear Mór
Lewis’s account records a fishing fleet constrained by declining catches and unsafe shelter.
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
- An tInbhear Mór · Irish · main form
- Arklow · English · main form
Place & story
Herring and oyster boats
Arklow’s fishery employed about two hundred boats in 1835, catching herring and dredging oysters. Writing in 1837, Samuel Lewis reported that the May fishing season had ceased and November catches scarcely repaid the work. Oysters nevertheless reached markets elsewhere in Ireland and in England. The harbour’s winding entrance and shifting sands restricted access to small boats, leaving fishermen exposed when bad weather prevented safe shelter. These were nineteenth-century conditions, before later harbour development. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Arklow. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Arklow: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2016-09-29. How this page was prepared.