Lisnamonaghan, County Tyrone

Background

The first element of this place-name is clearly lios ring-fort. Within the townland are the substantial remains of Castle Caulfield, an English-style house built by Sir Toby Caulfield on the site of a fort of the O'Donnells. A joist from one of the walls was dated to c.1282 & may belong to this earlier fort and is probably the referent of lios in the name. For the second element, the form assigned to O’Donovan suggests a personal name. As a surname, Monaghan, according to Bell is common all over Ireland, and, in Ulster it is most common in Co. Fermanagh (Bell 1988, 194) and we might suggest Lios Uí Mhanacháin ‘O’Mancháin’s fort’

As a common noun, there are a number of different ways in which the name could be interpreted.  It could be understood as being made up of muine ‘thicket’ plus the diminutive ending -eachán which can sometimes have the significance of ‘place of’ (Joyce ii 33).  Lios Muineacháin could therefore denote ‘fort of the little thicket’ or ‘fort of the place of thickets’. According to Joyce, the element muine in place-names can sometimes have the significance of ‘hill’ (Joyce i 496) and one might argue that Lios Muineacháin could mean ‘fort of the place of hills’ or ‘fort of the little hill’.  However, since muine in townland names is less frequently attested in the sense of ‘hill’ than in the sense of ‘thicket’ (McKay 1995, 232), this interpretation of the place-name must be regarded as less likely. 

References

Additional Information

Historical name form

Barony

Dungannon Middle

Parish

Donaghmore

Parish in 1851

Donaghmore

Townland

None

Place name ID

20669

Place name type

T