placenamesChaffpool
Loch na Cáithe
Chaffpool in Achonry parish preserves the remains of an estate house, gardens and service buildings associated with two landowning families.
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
- Loch na Cáithe · Irish · main form · validated name
- Chaffpool · English · main form
Place & story
An estate changes hands
Chaffpool House was the centre of the Armstrong estate in the nineteenth century, following earlier Somers ownership. The University of Galway’s Landed Estates record places it in Chaffpool townland, Achonry parish. Catherine Armstrong held the property at Griffith’s Valuation, when the house was valued at £35; the representatives of Edward Armstrong occupied it in 1906. [2]
John Armstrong and Famine relief
University of Limerick’s Armstrong archive describes John Armstrong taking up residence at Chaffpool after marrying Catherine Somers. He replaced the earlier house and developed its grounds and outbuildings. A magistrate as well as a landlord, he chaired the Upper Leyny and Tubbercurry Relief Committees during the Famine. He died of typhus on 2 December 1846. [3]
The surviving estate landscape
The Landed Estates survey records extensive surviving remains of the walled garden and stable buildings, together with a later house. These surviving elements belong to different phases of the property’s development, rather than a single unchanged nineteenth-century residence. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Chaffpool. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Chaffpool · University of Galway, Landed Estates
- Armstrong Collection: biographical history · University of Limerick Special Collections
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.