placenamesKilchreest
Cill Chríost
Coney Island, Crovraghan and Cloonnakilla preserve different strands of life around the Fergus estuary.
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
- Cill Chríost · Irish · main form
- Kilchreest · English · main form
Place & story
Coney Island in 1837
Samuel Lewis counted about ten families on Coney Island in 1837. He described fertile land, chiefly cultivated, with limestone beneath and seaweed available as manure. Two ruined churches remained. His account also distinguished the narrow, fast-flowing passage beside Rat Island, used by vessels approaching through the Fergus estuary. [2]
Boats serving the island farms
During a February visit to Crovraghan, waterways researcher Brian Goggin recorded gandalows near the shore and three cattle lighters of different sizes. His photographs and account document boats serving the islands’ agricultural economy. He also compared historic maps, finding a small quay on the earlier six-inch survey that was absent from the later twenty-five-inch map. [3]
Doctor John Ryan at Cloonnakilla
The Landed Estates database records medical doctor John Ryan occupying Cloonnakilla House in the 1850s, when he held it from John Bindon Scott. Ryan was still resident in the 1870s. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilchreest. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Innisdadrom, or Coney Island: A History and Topography, 1837 · Samuel Lewis; Clare Libraries
- The cattle-carriers of Crovraghan: field visit and map comparison · Brian Goggin, Irish Waterways History
- Cloonnakilla, property 2127 · University of Galway, Landed Estates
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-12-21. How this page was prepared.