placenamesSwords
Sord
The civil parish of Swords includes a rural history documented through nineteenth-century description and archaeological investigation west of the town.
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
- Sord · Irish · main form · validated name
- Swords · English · main form
Place & story
A working rural parish
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account distinguishes the parish’s 3,722 inhabitants from the 2,537 living in Swords town. He describes productive soil, improving agriculture and several substantial corn mills. Country houses and their demesnes were another conspicuous feature. These observations place farming and milling alongside the better-known history of the town and its ecclesiastical buildings. [2]
Settlement beneath Mooretown
A 2024 archaeological assessment describes a medieval settlement cluster at Mooretown, within Swords parish. Earlier investigations recovered 127 medieval potsherds and an iron riding spur. The report considers a tenant farm or grange possible, while noting that the layout also resembles a small hamlet. Some later pottery suggests reduced occupation continuing into the sixteenth or seventeenth century. [3]
A seventeenth-century estate
The same assessment reviews the Civil Survey of 1654–56. Mooretown belonged to Sir Edward Bolton of Brazil, with a slated stone house, barn, eight cabins, orchard, garden and ornamental ash trees. Bolton lived at Brazil House to the west: his ownership does not establish that he occupied the Mooretown dwelling. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Dublin
- Barony
- Nethercross
- Barony
- Coolock
- Coordinates
- 53.46252, -6.23681
- Mapped area
- 39.07 km²
- Logainm ID
- 881 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Swords. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Swords — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Mooretown archaeological impact assessment,11March2024,pp17–19 · Siobhán Deery, Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy for Fingal County Council
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-06-28. How this page was prepared.