placenamesPharis
Fáras
Evidence for the Pharis district includes a recorded outdoor place of worship and a modern investigation near an old graveyard.
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
- Fáras · Irish · main form · validated name
- Pharis · English · main form
Place & story
A sheltered place on the Ballyknock road
In his account of north Antrim Mass sites, Patrick McKavanagh described a sheltered hollow on the Ballyknock–Pharis road associated with outdoor Catholic worship. He noted a large stone with a hollow in its top and changes to the surrounding ground caused by road spoil. The description preserves a specific local religious site, while leaving its precise period of use unresolved. [2]
Testing near the graveyard field
An archaeological evaluation in Pharis in October 2012 examined ground near a recorded nineteenth-century burial place known as the graveyard field. Naomi Carver’s report for Queen’s University Belfast records test trenches dug in response to a proposed dwelling and garage. No remains of archaeological significance were found within the tested area. The result concerns that development site, rather than the absence of a burial ground nearby. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Dunluce Upper
- Civil parish
- Loughguile
- Coordinates
- 55.05225, -6.35685 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 62298 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Pharis. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Other Penal Mass Sites in North Antrim, The Glynns volume 2 (1974) · Patrick McKavanagh; Glens of Antrim Historical Society
- Pharis archaeological evaluation, report 250, licence AE/12/101 E · Naomi Carver, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University Belfast
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.