Crookstown in County Cork has an industrial landmark in Bellmount Mills. Local recollections of Nora Leahy also preserve a history of childbirth, neighbourly help and evening visiting in the surrounding countryside.
Illustration, surviving Clodagh Castle tower near Crookstown
⊕Recorded locationCrookstown51.84294° N · 8.83072° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
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 Baile Gallda· Irish · main form · validated name
Crookstown· English · main form
Place & story
The scale of Bellmount Mills
Bellmount's former corn mill dates to around 1800. Its main block rises through five storeys to an attic, with later additions creating a strikingly uneven group of tall buildings. Small windows, loading areas and slate hanging on one elevation preserve details of its industrial purpose. The architectural survey records the complex as disused, but its height still makes clear the scale of the business that once operated here. It is a substantial reminder of milling's place in Crookstown's economy.[2]
Crookstown House and the Warrens
A branch of the Warren family occupied Crookstown House from the late eighteenth century. The Reverend E. W. Warren was recorded there in 1814, followed by the Reverend Robert Warren in 1837 and during the Griffith's Valuation period. The property was burned in June 1921, when Robert Warren lived there. The Landed Estates Database records the house as surviving and occupied. Its history connects local landed property with the destruction of country houses during the War of Independence.[3]
People & connections
Nora Leahy of Upper Bellmount
Nora Leahy, born Regan, came from Castletownkenneigh and married Joe Leahy in 1899. They were living in Upper Bellmount by the 1911 census. Mary O'Sullivan's local history remembers her work attending women in childbirth and helping families when someone died. Nora and Joe raised thirteen children, some of whom later emigrated. She died in July 1956 and was buried with Joe in Moviddy Cemetery. Her remembered contribution concerns the everyday care on which neighbouring families depended.[4]
Folklore & tradition
Evening visiting at Leahy's
O'Sullivan also records the custom of scoraíochting: neighbours gathering in one another's houses at night. Leahy's was remembered as a regular meeting place, where visitors received food and conversation and an absent neighbour might be missed. Travellers could also find shelter there. This account places a familiar rural social custom in a named household at Upper Bellmount, showing how hospitality maintained connections between families before television changed the pattern of evening entertainment.[4]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Crookstown — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Crookstown, Cork — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Crookstown, Cork — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Crookstown, Cork — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Crookstown, Cork
Published census settlement populations
245people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames