placenamesCaherelly
Cathair Ailí
Caherelly’s landscape contains traces of an old church, several fortified sites and later country houses. Historical surveys help distinguish buildings whose changing names can otherwise make their histories difficult to follow.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Cathair Ailí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Caherelly · English · main form
Place & story
The old church and burial ground
The Ordnance Survey field-name books describe Caherelly’s old church as a substantial ivy-covered ruin with an attached, walled burial ground. The surveyors measured the building at about thirty-three feet long and twenty-five feet wide. They recorded a local belief that it had been a friary, but did not establish that identification. The account is a nineteenth-century description of the remains, rather than a report of their present condition. [2]
Two contrasting castle sites
The same survey distinguishes Black Castle in Caherelly East from Caherelly Castle in Caherelly West. Black Castle was already almost levelled, its remains standing on a small limestone outcrop above the road. The western castle, by contrast, was described as about sixty feet high, square in plan and still roofed. These entries show why references to a single Caherelly castle can conceal more than one historic structure. [2]
The house built by William Hannan
A later house, formerly known as Caherelly Cottage and subsequently called Caherelly Castle, bears a plaque recording its construction by William Hannan in 1800. The University of Galway’s estate database places it close to the ruins of an older castle. Michael Furnell occupied the house in the early 1850s; it later became the home of his brother Frederick, an army surgeon. The changing name should not obscure its origins as a country house. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Limerick
- Barony
- Clanwilliam
- Coordinates
- 52.54636, -8.50124 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1411739 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Caherelly. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ordnance Survey field-name books: Caherelly parish, printed page 321 · Ordnance Survey; digitised by Limerick Local Studies
- Caherelly Cottage/Caherelly Castle, property 2409 · University of Galway, Landed Estates Database
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-12-01. How this page was prepared.