placenamesDrumgath
Droim Ga
A community survey has helped reveal the layers of a historic burial ground and church complex at Drumgath.
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
- Droim Ga · Irish · main form · validated name
- Drumgath · English · main form
Place & story
Recovering the site
On 28 May 2016, thirteen members of the Ulster Archaeological Society surveyed the old church site at the request of Drumgath Ladies Group. The group had cleared dense vegetation with council and heritage-agency oversight. Surveyors recorded the visible church and mortuary-house remains; aerial photography also revealed traces of another substantial ecclesiastical building. Its date and relationship to the surviving structures remain uncertain. [2]
The Drumgath bell
A bronze handbell found near the graveyard in 1764 offers another link with early worship here. It was later used at Barnmeen church and passed to antiquarian Isaac Glenny in 1820. The survey report places it within the early Irish handbell tradition, while treating the site’s possible monastic origins as an interpretation requiring further evidence. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Iveagh Upper, Upper Half
- Civil parish
- Drumgath
- Coordinates
- 54.08562, -6.01316 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413235 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Drumgath. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Early Ecclesiastical Site at Drumgath, County Down, Northern Ireland: Survey Report No. 60 · R. Stevenson and R. Scott; Ulster Archaeological Society
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2020-03-03. How this page was prepared.