placenamesDown
An Dún
Lewis recorded a county-funded schoolroom and master’s residence at the end of Saul Street.
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
- An Dún · Irish · main form
- Down · English · main form
Place & story
A shared diocesan school
The diocesan schools of Down and Dromore were united in 1823, according to Samuel Lewis’s account of 1837. A schoolroom and master’s residence followed at the end of Saul Street in Downpatrick in 1829. The £1,000 cost was met by the county at large, with Lord de Clifford supplying the site. Lewis described the school as free to boys from both dioceses. Its support included annual contributions from the two dioceses, alongside other endowments, giving it a wider reach than a school solely for the town. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Lecale Upper
- Coordinates
- 54.30858, -5.74629 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 47.1 km²
- Logainm ID
- 65765 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Down. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- See of Down: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-10-08. How this page was prepared.