placenamesArmoy
Oirthear Maí
Samuel Lewis’s pre-Famine survey records institutions and working land across Armoy parish, beyond the village and its round tower.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Oirthear Maí · Irish · main form
- Armoy · English · main form
Place & story
Schools across the parish
In 1837, Samuel Lewis located Armoy's parochial school at Doonan. He also recorded national schools at Breene and in Armoy village, with another school at Mulaghduff. This dispersed provision served a parish whose recorded population was 2,622, of whom only 129 lived in the village. The figures make clear how much of Armoy's nineteenth-century community lay outside its small settlement. [2]
The estate of the see of Connor
Lewis described most of the parish as belonging to the see of Connor, except Ballycanver, Park, Bunshanloney, Mulaghduff and part of Armoy village. The ecclesiastical living changed in 1831: after Archdeacon Trail's death, the former vicarage became a rectory under Bishop Mant's legislation. These arrangements linked parish administration and landholding to the bishopric, alongside Catholic and Presbyterian places of worship. [2]
Lime, turf and road stone
The same survey describes farmers improving potato ground with mixtures of lime and earth or moss. Turf came from local bogs and mountain ground, while limestone and basalt quarries supplied building and road materials. Lewis's account therefore records several connected rural resources: cultivated fields, fuel grounds and stone workings, all supporting the parish economy in the years before the Famine. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Armoy. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Armoy or Ardmoy: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.