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
Béal Tairbirt· Irish · main form · validated name
Belturbet· English · main form
Place & story
Along the Erne
Lewis’s 1837 account places Belturbet on the Erne and the road from Cavan to Ballyconnell. Water connected it through Lough Erne towards Ballyshannon, although he notes shoals interrupting navigation in dry weather. That qualification matters: a navigable river was not necessarily an unrestricted route in every season. His report of a three-arched bridge under construction similarly captures a specific moment in the crossing’s history, rather than an unchanging landscape.[2]
A planned borough
The directory traces negotiations with Sir Stephen Butler from 1610, incorporation in 1613 and a further grant of lands and trading privileges in 1618. Its account of the settlement includes houses, gardens, grazing rights and obligations to use the lord’s mill. These details make the borough more than a collection of buildings. It was also an arrangement governing land, work and the duties expected of its inhabitants during the Ulster plantation.[2]
A town across parishes
Belturbet is placed partly in Drumlane and chiefly in Annagh parish, within Lower Loughtee. A family association with the town therefore does not identify one parish automatically. The economic portrait includes butter, oatmeal, potatoes and yarn at market, together with malting and a distillery opened in 1825. Those dated activities suggest occupations and trading connections to investigate, but establish neither the survival of particular businesses nor the occupation of an individual ancestor.[2]
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
Belturbet — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Belturbet, Cavan — 2011 legal town and environs; 2016 census settlement
Published census settlement populations
1,369people · 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.
View population figures
Belturbet, Cavan — 2011 legal town and environs; 2016 census settlement — census population
placenames