placenamesGort
An Gort
A former church’s library use and the cavalry barracks show how buildings within the wider Gort division acquired successive purposes.
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
- An Gort · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Gort · English · main form
Place & story
A church becomes a library
Gort Library occupies a former Church of Ireland building at Ballyhugh, dated by the architectural inventory to about 1810 and attributed to James Pain. Its tower, transepts and carved limestone retain the church’s architectural form. The survey credits the surviving east stained-glass window to Sibthorpe of Dublin, through a gift from Mrs Lahiff. [2]
The cavalry barracks building
On Barrack Street, a long three-storey limestone range survives within the former military grounds. The inventory dates this particular building to about 1820 and records its later use as a warehouse. Worked stone door surrounds and the extended row of windows distinguish the military range from the smaller domestic buildings around it. [3]
Finds from the 2026 trenches
Fiona Rooney’s 2026 testing report records building foundations, musket balls, a pendant relic and cobbles around a pump platform. The platform and adjacent building corresponded with features on an 1883 barracks plan. The report states that specialist work continued; these are interim findings from particular trenches, rather than a final interpretation of the entire site. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Gort. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Gort Library, Ballyhugh, 30341042 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Gort Cavalry Barracks building, 30341036 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- 2026:143, Barrack Street, Gort, licence 26E0440 · Fiona Rooney, Through Time Ltd
- Gort electoral division: constituent townlands · Townlands.ie / OpenStreetMap contributors
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.