placenamesNurney
An Urnaí
This north Kildare parish includes Williamstown and the district served by Clogherinkoe’s school.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- An Urnaí · Irish · main form
- Nurney · English · main form
Place & story
Schooling and parish arrangements
Samuel Lewis placed this Nurney in Carbury barony in 1837, on the Enfield–Edenderry road. Its Catholic congregation belonged to Cadamstown's district, while the Church of Ireland vicarage formed part of the Carbury union. Lewis recorded a national school at Cloghrike, serving approximately one hundred children, and identified Williamstown House as J. Williams's residence. [2]
Williamstown’s surviving grounds
The architectural garden inventory identifies Williamstown House within Nurney parish and records its grounds on successive Ordnance Survey editions. Its survey found the principal building, walled garden and parkland still identifiable, although modern farm buildings had significantly changed the centre of the site. The record distinguishes surviving estate features from later agricultural development. [3]
Population across eight townlands
The 1851 census grouped eight townlands under Nurney parish in Carbury. Together they contained 599 people, compared with 651 in 1841. The changes varied locally: Killinagh declined from 216 to 193 inhabitants, while Williamstown rose from 41 to 44. These are figures for the rural parish and its townlands, distinct from the southern Kildare village also called Nurney. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Nurney. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Nurney, Carbery: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland,1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Williamstown House, garden inventory1855 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Census of Ireland1851, County Kildare, Carbury parish tables, PDFpage5 · Census Commissioners,1852; Central Statistics Office
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.