A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Málainn· Irish · main form · validated name
Malin· English · main form
Place & story
An entrance over ten arches
Malin Bridge crosses the Ballyboe River near its mouth at Trawbreaga Bay. Its ten round-headed arches, broad piers and sloping buttresses give the entrance to the village a distinctive low, extended form. The architectural inventory dates it to about 1760, while allowing that it may incorporate earlier fabric. Local rubble stone forms both arches and parapets. The bridge’s survival records the skill needed to carry a road over this estuarine crossing, and it remains part of the village’s working infrastructure.[2]
Rebuilding around the village green
A small two-storey house on the southeast corner of Malin’s green preserves slate roofing, timber sash windows and a battened door. The architectural inventory dates it to about 1820 and relates it provisionally to a rebuilding programme in which twenty-eight houses were built or renewed. It records the house as out of use at the time of survey in 2008. Such modest buildings provide evidence for the early nineteenth-century village, alongside its larger church and estate structures.[3]
People & connections
George Harvey and Malin Hall
Malin Hall was built in 1758 for George Harvey, High Sheriff of Donegal. Its demesne occupies rising ground northwest of the village, overlooking Trawbreaga Bay. The garden survey records mature parkland and shelter-belt trees, with a late Georgian gate lodge at the main entrance near the village’s western edge. By the time of that survey the grounds formed a working farm. The estate’s entrance, trees and setting preserve its relationship with Malin beyond the country house itself.[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
Malin — 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
Malin, Donegal — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Malin, Donegal
Published census settlement populations
92people · 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