placenamesRasharkin
Ros Earcáin
Lewis’s 1837 account records two substantial bleaching establishments linked to the parish’s linen trade.
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
- Ros Earcáin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rasharkin · English · main form
Place & story
Dunminning’s bleaching business
At Dunminning, Thomas Birnie owned a bleach-green which Samuel Lewis reported processing about 20,000 webs of linen, chiefly for the English market. Dunminning townland belongs to Rasharkin civil parish. Lewis’s 1837 account places the establishment within a broader linen economy whose cloth was sold at Ballymena. [2] [3]
An annual figure at Dunroin
Lewis also recorded a bleach-green at Dunroin belonging to John Cunningham, where about 34,000 webs were bleached annually. He noted residences attached to both proprietors’ establishments. These figures describe the scale reported in his historical account, without identifying individual workers or tracing the businesses’ subsequent history. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rasharkin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Rasharkin: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
- Dunminning townland, 62718 · Placenames Database of Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.