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
Achadh na Cloiche· Irish · main form · validated name
Aghnacliff· English · main form
Aughnacliffe· English · main form · local name
Place & story
The portal tomb
Aghnacliff's best-known prehistoric monument belongs to a group of Neolithic portal tombs around western Lough Gowna. Its unusual arrangement includes two capstones, supported by smaller uprights above a narrow burial chamber. Visit Longford notes that one of the tall entrance stones has been lost. The surviving stonework is a burial monument from long before the village's later buildings, rather than a structure erected by the heroes associated with it in legend.[2][4]
Folklore & tradition
Diarmaid and Gráinne’s resting place
Visit Longford records a traditional association between this tomb, nearby Cleenrath and the flight of Diarmaid and Gráinne from Fionn Mac Cumhaill. The monuments are remembered as places where the fugitives rested. This is a later legendary explanation attached to prehistoric stones; it does not identify their original builders or provide archaeological dating.[2]
Saint Colmcille’s church
Saint Colmcille's Church bears an 1834 date, but much of its present character comes from extensive alterations for its centenary in 1934. Round-headed arcades and a barrel ceiling shape the interior. A stained-glass window depicts Colmcille landing at Iona, with interlace ornament in its design. The architectural inventory also records an old bronze bell inside, probably fifteenth-century, whose possible connection with Inchmore Island remains uncertain.[3]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Aughnacliffe — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Aughnacliffe, Longford
Published census settlement populations
177people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames