placenamesHarristown
Baile Hanraí
The parish near Nurney has a distinct history from the Harristown estate beside the Liffey, with school records and a surviving farm group documenting local life.
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
- Baile Hanraí · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Harristown · English · main form
Place & story
An isolated part of King’s County
Lewis described this Harristown in 1837 as an isolated portion of King’s County surrounded by County Kildare, on the Monasterevin–Athy road. Riverstown was the residence of Captain Browne. The parish’s living formed the prebend of Harristown in Kildare Cathedral, although Lewis found no parish church, glebe-house or glebe. The parish is now recorded under County Kildare; its historical county description helps distinguish it from the former borough near Kilcullen. [2] [5]
Michael Kelly’s school at Borbawn
An 1824 school return identifies Michael Kelly as the teacher at Borbawn in Harristown. Opened on 15 March 1821, the school met six days a week, with short Easter and Christmas breaks. Kelly taught writing, arithmetic and bookkeeping in a thatched building with mud walls. The return counted eighteen boys and fourteen girls. His income combined support from Harristown’s incumbent and the Kildare Street Society with pupils’ payments, linking charitable assistance and fees in one small classroom. [3]
A farmhouse at Mylerstown
The late nineteenth-century farmhouse at Mylerstown has an L-shaped plan and a projecting bay extending through both storeys. Slate roofs, sash windows and roughcast walls form much of its recorded exterior. Two accompanying outbuildings include an open-fronted range supported on iron piers and a larger two-storey structure. The architectural survey dates the group to around 1880, preserving evidence of a substantial farmstead within Harristown parish. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kildare
- Barony
- Offaly West
- Coordinates
- 53.08762, -6.98232
- Mapped area
- 18.91 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1180 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Harristown. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Harristown parish in A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
- Transcription of School Return 1824: Monasterevan, Borbawn school · Delany Archive, historical school return
- Mylerstown farmhouse, registration 11903114 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Harristown civil parish,1180 · Placenames Database of Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-10-23. How this page was prepared.