placenamesClogh
An Chloch
Surviving thatched houses and their family histories preserve part of the domestic world of north Kilkenny’s coalfield.
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 Chloch · Irish · main form · validated name
- Clogh · English · main form
Place & story
The thatched cottages
A group of small thatched houses gives Clogh a distinctive architectural inheritance. One cottage recorded by the National Inventory dates from around 1800 and retains rubble-stone and mud-wall construction, a supporting buttress and small window openings. Its replacement oat-thatch roof was renewed after 1994, with ropework along the ridge. The inventory cautiously associates it with accommodation for a worker in the nearby coal mines. Its scale and materials preserve a form of home once much more common in the village. [2]
A family home in the coalfield
The custodians of Phil Barron’s House trace its family history through John Delaney’s daughter Ann and her husband Tom Barron. Ann and Tom married in 1903 and later occupied the cottage as their family home. Tom worked locally as a farm labourer and also helped sink the Deerpark mines in the 1920s. The house’s own history connects these livelihoods with a building shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1839–40. It offers a named family’s experience alongside the broader industrial history of the coalfield. [3]
Saint Patrick’s Church
Saint Patrick’s Church was built in 1840 on a cruciform plan, with a nave, transepts and shallow chancel. Its restrained Gothic detailing includes buttresses, pointed openings and an elevated bellcote. Although renovated and reordered in 1983, the church retained a substantial earlier interior, including a timber gallery and exposed roof structure, when surveyed by the National Inventory. The surrounding graveyard adds another record of the community through its carved stone memorials and the craftsmanship of their makers. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Kilkenny
- Barony
- Fassadinin
- Civil parish
- Castlecomer
- Within
- Clogh
- Coordinates
- 52.86473, -7.16497
- Logainm ID
- 1412348 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Clogh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Clogh thatched cottage,12400203 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- History of Phil Barron’s House · Phil Barron’s House, family history
- Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church,12400201 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Phil Barron's House, Clogh, County Kilkenny illustration: based on a Phil Barron's House 02.png by A.-K. D.. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-08-27. How this page was prepared.