placenamesCoolcarrigan
Cúil Charraigín
A nineteenth-century house on the Bog of Allen’s edge became the setting for a distinctive private church and a collection of unusual trees.
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
- Cúil Charraigín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Coolcarrigan · English · main form
Place & story
The house and its setting
Coolcarrigan House dates from the 1830s and was originally used as a shooting lodge. Robert Mackay Wilson built the house, which was subsequently extended and modernised. The estate lies near Coill Dubh on the edge of the Bog of Allen. Its church stands separately among trees, enclosed by a moat, bringing a deliberately secluded religious building into the wider designed landscape. [2]
A church inspired by early Ireland
The church was built in 1881–85 in the Celtic Revival style. The Church of Ireland’s survey identifies Temple Finghin at Clonmacnoise as a model and notes its round tower. Its architect remains uncertain: the architectural dictionary records competing attributions to Thomas Drew and James Franklin Fuller. Catherine O’Brien later supplied stained glass, including side windows with Celtic decoration and a 1916 west window depicting the four Evangelists. [3] [4]
Renewing the garden
A destructive windstorm prompted major replanting during the 1970s, with advice from the English plantsman Harold Hillier. The resulting collection brought unusual trees and shrubs into the garden. A further seven acres were added to the arboretum in 2003, together with a wildflower meadow. These changes show that Coolcarrigan’s planting is the product of successive interventions, rather than an estate landscape preserved unchanged from the nineteenth century. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Kildare
- Barony
- Clane
- Civil parish
- Timahoe
- Within
- Coolcarrigan
- Coordinates
- 53.32367, -6.84430 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412372 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Coolcarrigan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Coolcarrigan House and Garden: house and planting history · Oleg Brazhnyk; Kildare Town Heritage Centre
- Coolcarrigan church, survey133020 · David Lawrence; Representative Church Body
- Coolcarrigan Church of Ireland: architectural and stained-glass records · Irish Architectural Archive, Dictionary of Irish Architects
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.