Louisburgh was laid out on the Bunowen River in the late eighteenth century. Its streets, heritage centre and Famine Walk connect the planned settlement with the history of the surrounding Mayo coast and valleys.
⊕Recorded locationLouisburgh53.76345° N · 9.81005° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
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
Cluain Cearbán· Irish · main form · non-validated name
Louisburgh· English · main form
Place & story
A town laid out in the 1790 s
Mayo County Council's village study dates Louisburgh's foundation to 1795, under Lord Altamont, John Browne. The name recalled Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, where a member of the family had participated in the siege of 1758. The study's comparison with the 1838 Ordnance Survey map shows the planned street pattern that remains legible in the town. It also identifies a lost lane between Long Street and Chapel Street. An earlier Catholic church gave Chapel Street its name before a later church was built on Long Street.[2]
The journey to Delphi
At the end of March 1849, starving people seeking relief in Louisburgh were directed to attend an inspection at Delphi Lodge the following morning. The journey took them along the mountain route beside Doolough in severe weather. Contemporary newspaper correspondence reported deaths on the road and further deaths among people who reached home. Historian Leon Ó Mórcháin's account identifies named victims from that reporting, including Catherine Grady, Mary McHale and James Flynn. The tragedy became central to the district's remembrance of the Great Famine.[3]
A heritage centre made locally
The Granuaile Interpretive Centre opened in 1988 as a project of Louisburgh Development Company. RTÉ's report of the opening recorded the involvement of Grace O'Malley's biographer Anne Chambers and the official inauguration by environment minister Pádraig Flynn. The project received European Community and Combat Poverty support. Its purpose combined local historical education with an effort to develop tourism and employment. Grace O'Malley's maritime world in Clew Bay supplied the centre's subject, while the work of establishing it formed part of Louisburgh's own more recent community history.[4]
Walking in remembrance
Afri first organised the Doolough Famine Walk in 1988. The organisers marked its thirtieth anniversary in 2018, linking remembrance of the nineteenth-century tragedy with concern for people facing hunger in the present. The walk made the route between Louisburgh and Delphi a place of public commemoration. It brought the history out of books and exhibitions and into the landscape through which the people seeking relief had travelled.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Louisburgh — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Louisburgh, Mayo — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Louisburgh, Mayo — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Louisburgh, Mayo — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Louisburgh, Mayo
Published census settlement populations
434people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames