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
Ail Finn· Irish · main form · validated name
Elphin· English · main form
Place & story
The windmill and its restoration
Elphin's windmill is an eighteenth-century tower mill restored by a community initiative beginning in the early 1990s. Archaeologist Eoin Halpin's account of later maintenance describes its three storeys, rotating cap, sails and thatched roof. It had appeared as a ruin on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century maps before the restoration. The structure stands on a partly levelled mound northwest of the town. Its present working form therefore combines surviving historic masonry with deliberate reconstruction and continuing maintenance, rather than an unbroken history of operation since its first construction.[2]
Successive buildings on the cathedral site
Roscommon County Council's protected-structure record dates the rebuilding of the former Church of Ireland cathedral to 1757–58, on a medieval site. Extensions followed in 1823 and 1872. The building was demolished in 1961, and the surviving remains were consolidated in 1982. The same record identifies an Oliver Goldsmith memorial made in 1935 and placed at the site in 1982. These dates separate the old cathedral's successive architectural phases from the later work of conserving and interpreting its remains as part of Elphin's historic landscape.[3]
Folklore & tradition
Oisín carrying stones
In Legends of Saints and Sinners, Douglas Hyde records a Roscommon tradition of the aged Oisín carrying stones at Elphin and meeting Saint Patrick there. Hyde notes that he had heard the association locally and compares it with an older Gaelic literary witness preserved in Scotland. The accompanying poem imagines the hero's sorrow as he remembers the hunting, generosity and companionship of the Fianna. The story places a legendary encounter in Elphin's landscape; Hyde's discussion documents its transmission, not the historical presence of Oisín in the town.[4]
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
Elphin — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Elphin, Roscommon — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Elphin, Roscommon — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Elphin, Roscommon — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Elphin, Roscommon
Published census settlement populations
565people · 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.
Elphin Windmill, County Roscommon illustration: based on a County Roscommon - Elphin Windmill - 20240307011856 by Olliebailie. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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