placenames1901 census
No verified place match is available for this year. This does not indicate a population of zero.
Knockshigowna
Cnoc Sí Ghabhna
The hill in this Lower Ormond townland appears both in nineteenth-century landscape descriptions and in a printed fairy tale.
Recorded locationKnockshigowna53.01321° N · 8.00283° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie
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
- Cnoc Sí Ghabhna · Irish · main form · validated name
- Knockshigowna · English · main form
Place & story
A landmark above the countryside
Samuel Lewis described Knockshigowna in 1837 as a prominent landmark topped by a small tower, with views into several neighbouring counties. He noted planted slopes on its eastern and western sides. The tower also appears in Thomas Crofton Croker’s introduction to the hill’s legend: he describes a summit lodge used for summer pleasure parties. These accounts place a recreational building within a landscape already associated with fairy stories. [2] [3]
Larry Hoolahan’s encounter
In Croker’s printed Legend of Knocksheogowna, fairies drive cattle and their frightened keepers from the hill. The piper Larry Hoolahan agrees to watch the herd and refuses to be intimidated by their queen’s changing shapes. When she becomes a white calf, he climbs onto her back; she carries him over the Shannon and back again. Impressed by his courage, she promises that the herd will remain undisturbed while he tends it. This is a literary record of a local supernatural tale, rather than evidence of an identifiable herdsman or a historical river crossing. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Townland
- County
- Tipperary
- Barony
- Ormond Lower
- Civil parish
- Ballingarry
- Coordinates
- 53.01321, -8.00283
- Mapped area
- 1.09 km²
- Logainm ID
- 45803 ↗
People & family history
Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.
1911 census
8People recorded
2Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
Explore the 1911 records ↗1926 census
No verified place match is available for this year. This does not indicate a population of zero.
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Knockshigowna. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ballingarry,LowerOrmond: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- The Legend of Knocksheogowna: Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,1906reprint · Thomas Crofton Croker
- Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.