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 Ros· Irish · main form · validated name
Rosses Point· English · main form
Place & story
The Metal Man on Perch Rock
The Metal Man has stood on Perch Rock at the entrance to Sligo Harbour since 1821. Designed as a naval figure with an outstretched arm, he points towards the deep channel. His intended site was originally Blackrock, but local shipowners argued that Perch Rock needed the marker and that Blackrock should receive a lighthouse. Thomas Hamm of Ballina built the limestone base. A light was added in 1908, giving the figure another practical role within the harbour's navigation system as well as its familiar place in the seascape.[2]
People & connections
The Yeats family at the shore
William Middleton, grand-uncle of William Butler and Jack B. Yeats, owned Elsinore, while other members of the extended family used Bowmore and Moyle Lodges. Their shipping connections helped bring the children into a world of boats, pilots and seafaring conversation. William Butler returned as a young adult and worked on The Wanderings of Oisin at Moyle Lodge in 1887, staying with George Pollexfen. Rosses Point thus supplied both childhood memories and a later working setting for the writer, alongside the maritime scenes remembered in Jack's art.[3]
Folklore & tradition
The fiddlers at the sea cave
In The Celtic Twilight, Yeats recorded a Rosses story about fishermen left to guard a wrecked brig through the night. At midnight they saw two fiddlers wearing red caps seated on a rock at a cave mouth, playing with extraordinary energy. The frightened watchers fled and brought villagers back with them, but the musicians had vanished. Yeats placed this cave a short distance south of the northern headland of Rosses. The tale turns a recognisable coastal task, watching a wreck, into an encounter with the otherworld.[4]
Keeping watch for incoming ships
The old pilots' watch house on the coastal walk dates from 1810. River pilots used it to see vessels approaching Sligo Harbour and prepare to guide them through the channel. Its position belongs to the same working maritime landscape as the Metal Man, Oyster Island and Blackrock lights. The small building preserves the shore-based side of a skilled occupation: before a pilot could board and bring a ship safely upriver, someone had to watch the sea for its arrival.[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
Rosses Point — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
872people · 2006
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
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
799people · 1996
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
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1986 report
1981–1986: census town
598people · 1986
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
Rosses Point, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Rosses Point, Sligo
Published census settlement populations
883people · 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