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County

Clare

An Clár

Clare’s Atlantic and estuary shores enclose a county whose historical regional identity reaches beyond one town or family.

Recorded locationClare52.86898° N · 9.14511° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ieOpen in OpenStreetMap ↗

The name

clárplank bridge; plain

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

  • An Clár · Irish · main form · validated name
  • Clare · English · main form

Place & story

Between ocean and estuary

Lewis places Clare between the Atlantic, Galway Bay, Lough Derg and successive reaches of the Shannon. These water boundaries face different kinds of travel: an exposed western coast, a broad estuary and an inland lake are not interchangeable settings. They help explain why a county connection may lead towards Limerick, Galway or a local port. A townland’s precise shore or river valley can matter more to its historical relationships than the county label alone. [2]

Thomond is a larger historical idea

The 1837 account treats Clare as a central part of Thomond and records districts associated with O’Brien, MacNamara and other lordships. Some territorial names survive in later baronies, but the boundaries should not be assumed to coincide exactly across centuries. The county’s political history is consequently useful context for land and institutional records, while a list of chiefs is not a substitute for evidence connecting named individuals across generations. [2]

County town and downstream port

Lewis’s Ennis entry provides a local example of connected places: produce moved through the Fergus towards Clare, which he described as Ennis’s port. The market town and its shipping outlet were distinct settlements serving a shared economy. Such distinctions can clarify an ancestor’s occupation or a merchant’s account. Preserve both the exact place and the administrative unit in the original document; a county, town, barony and historical region can all appear under related names while describing different areas. [3]

Geographic information

Place type
County
County
Clare
Coordinates
52.86898, -9.14511
Mapped area
3,449.62 km²
Logainm ID
100009 ↗

People & family history

Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.

Explore this county

Up to 50 places per page, ordered by name.

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Clare. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. County Clare — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis · 1837
  3. Ennis and its Fergus trade — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis · 1837
  4. Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-09-19. How this page was prepared.