Place names

Place-names are of importance, often telling us what the landscape looked like in the past. Little use was made of place-names in producing the inventory of ancient and long-established woodland, though where woods on the First Edition OS maps had their own name, separate from the townland or estate, this was taken to be a possible indicator of antiquity.

Place-names do need careful interpretation. A name which includes the meaning "yew trees" may have been called this because the whole area was thick with yew in early times, or it might have this name because yew was fairly unusual in the area, and therefore worthy of note.

There are a number of publications by the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast on the meaning and occurrence of place-names. Excellent information is also available on place names, their sources and meanings, and current research, through Geography in Action, aimed at geography students and teachers. The Ulster Place Name Project also has a website with interesting and useful information.