placenamesRedhills
An Cnoc Rua
The triangular village green, nineteenth-century iron workings and Killoughter’s surviving records reveal different sides of Redhills’s history.
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 Cnoc Rua · Irish · main form · validated name
- Redhills · English · main form
- Redhill · English · main form · local name
Place & story
The terrace around the green
Redhills’s triangular village green is edged by a terrace whose scale gives the centre a distinctive shape. One house, dated to around 1890 by the national architectural inventory, retains paired timber casement windows, decorative eaves and contrasting render finishes on its two storeys. Its windows include small cruciform divisions in the upper lights. These surviving details show how modest domestic buildings contribute to the character of the village as much as its larger landmarks. [2]
Iron mining in the surrounding hills
At nearby Claragh, red iron-bearing shale was worked by the Redhills Mining Company in 1872. Geological Survey Ireland records production of about 5,000 tonnes by June that year, but mining had stopped by 1878 because the ore contained too much silica. Further investigation in 1959–60 found insufficient reserves to justify development. The remaining excavation is one of three historic iron-working sites in the area; it lies on farmland and is not presented as a public visitor attraction. [3]
Killoughter’s church and stained glass
Nearby Killoughter Church was built in 1812–14 and enlarged with a chancel around 1860. Its limestone tower has stepped battlements and pointed corner pinnacles, while the interior preserves high-backed seats, timber roof trusses and wall monuments. The east window contains Catherine O’Brien’s 1954 stained-glass treatment of the Parable of the Sower. Together with the former school, hall and glebe, the church forms a group of buildings associated with the parish’s religious and social life. [4]
What the vestry book remembers
Killoughter’s vestry minute book begins in March 1813 with the establishment of the new parish and plans for its church. It also records less conspicuous work: payments for abandoned children, coffins for poor families and a contribution towards Patrick Flood’s teaching in 1820. In 1814 the vestry agreed to help fund the Catholic chapel, with further repair contributions in the 1830s. Jonathan Cherry’s study of the volume shows parish administration reaching into education, relief and relations between local congregations. [5]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Cavan
- Barony
- Tullygarvey
- Civil parish
- Annagh
- Coordinates
- 54.10014, -7.32733 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 5351 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Redhills. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Fair Green house: register 40401202 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Redhills / Claragh: County Geological Site Report CN016 · Geological Survey Ireland
- Killoughter Church of Ireland Church: register 40401609 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- The Killoughter Vestry Minute Book, November 2016 · Dr Jonathan Cherry, Representative Church Body Library
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-06-25. How this page was prepared.