GEORGE BRODERICK TAYLOR, SIMON (2002): 'The element sliahh and the Rhinns of THE TOPOGRAPHY OF BRUIDHEAN DA CHOGA OR Galloway ... '. HistOlY Scotland 2.6 (2002): 49-52. BRYANMORE HILL, CO. WESTMEATH 1 TAYLOR, SIMON (2007): 'Sliahh in Scottish place-names: its meaning and chronology'. Journal of Scottish Name Studies 1 (2007): 99- Aengus Finnegan 136. National University ofIreland, Galway TEMPAN, PAUL (2009a): 'Close compounds in Irish place-names'. In: McClure, Kirk & Storrie (eds.) (2009): 62-78. The placename Bmidhean Da Choga (earlier Bmiden Da Choca) is TEMPAN, PAUL (2009b): 'Towards a chronology of topographical well attested before 1000 A.D. It is mentioned in Sdla Mucce Meic elements in Irish place-names: Some strategies for establishing Datiz6, The Annals of the Four Masters for the year 919 A.D and in relative chronology'. In: Ahrens, Embleton & Lapierre (eds.) Chranicon Scotorum for the year 604 A.D. The focus of this paper (2009): 943-951. will however be on placenames mentioned in the mid twelfth-century TEMPAN, PAUL (2009c): 'Sliabh in Irish Place-Names'. Nomina 32 text Bruiden Da Choca, 'Da Choga's Hostel', and their possible (2009): 19-41. connection with modem townland names found in the vicinity of THOMSON, ROBERT L. (1983): 'The continuity of Manx'. In: Fell et Bmidhean Da Choga or Bryanmore Hill, which is situated about eight al. (eds.) (1983): 169-174. miles to the east of Athlone, in the parish of Dmrnraney, barony of THURNEYSEN, RUDOLF (1946): A Grammar of Old Irish. Dublin: Kilkenny West, Co. Westmeath. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. I would like to acknowledge at this point that Gregory Toner's TONER, GREGORY (1999): 'The definite article in Irish place-names'. edition of Bruiden Da Chaca, hereafter referred to as 'the text', has Nomina 22 (1999): 5-24. substantially informed this paper (Toner 2007). Indeed it was VENDRYES, JOSEPH (1959-): Lexique etymologique de "irlandais somewhat to my chagrin that I discovered on close reading of Dr ancien. Dublin I Paris. Continued by E. Bachellery & P. Y. Toner's notes that many of the questions I had set out to answer on Lambert. this place had already been answered both by him and by the great WATSON, W. J. (1926): The HistOlY of the Celtic Place-Names of Westmeath placenames' scholar Fr Paul Walsh. Nevertheless, many of Scotland. Edinburgh: Blackwood. the placenames mentioned in the text remain unidentified and I feel this paper, which has mainly focused on townland names, may have something to add. I will not give a summary of the text itself except to say it concerns the armies of Ulster and Connacht meeting at the hostel of Da Choga, following an earlier encounter near the ford of Athlone, resulting in a terrible battle and the destmction of that hostel. It is in the context of battle and death that most of the placenames in the text 1 I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Nollaig 6 Muraile for his assistance in preparing this paper, which was first presented at the Second International Conference on the Early Medieval Toponymy of Ireland and Scotland - 'The Earliest Strata', at Queen's University, Belfast on the 13 th of November 2009. 64 65 AENGUS FINNEGAN BRUIDHEAN DA CHOGA are mentioned. Individual deaths recorded in the narrative are almost well with the account in the text of the warrior Dubhthach throwing a always associated with a placename (Toner 2007). stone a great distance over the hostel. This rock was subsequently to John O'Donovan first identified the precise location of be found in the well of Ceall Lasra, which the text implies, later Bruidhean Da Choga in 1837. It seems he already had an inkling as to occupied the site of Bruidhean Da Choga (Toner 2007). The Irish where the place Bruidhean Da Choga was located as in one of his forms of Kiltober in the Ordnance Survey name-book (forms 8 & 9 earlier letters from Westmeath he made a request for; "All the below) seem to indicate an initial element of coil! rather than cill; references in Mac Firbis, the Annals, Keating etc., to Bruighe-an-Da however the presence of the second element tabor in such proximity Choga, a celebrated fortress in the Territory of Cuircne - if this place leads me to agree with Toner in connecting topar Cille Lasra with this be not now identified, it will be very difficult to bring the evidences townland. together in 20 years hence," (OSL WH: 23). 2 The Territory of Cuircne or Machaire Chuircne is roughly co-extensive with the barony 1. Killtobber Inq. Car. I, 28 1628 of Kilkenny West, located in south Co. Westmeath. It is bounded by 2. Killtobber Inq. Car. I, 116 1635 Lough Ree to the west, the Breensford River to the south and the river 3. Killtober Inq. Car. I, 124 1636 Inny to the north. 4. Kiltobber Inq. Car. I, 124 1636 Bruidlzean, or in current orthography bruion, is usually 5. Killentubber Larkin 1808 translated as a hostel or fairy palace - there were six celebrated hostels 6. Kiltobber OSNB Drum. 1: J HCSVR 1824 of Ireland. O'Donovan identified the remains of Bruidhean Da Choga 7. Kiltubber OSNB Drum. 1: BS 1837 4 as a large ringfort on the south-western slope of what is now known as 8. coill a tobair OSNB Drum. 1 PI. 1837 Bryanmore Hill, anciently Bruidhean Da Choga or Sliabh Malann. 9. Coill a' Tobair' OSNB Drum. 1 1837 This hill is in the townland of Bryanmore Upper, which along with Bryanmore Lower originally formed part of a ballybetagh around Da The pictnre is somewhat complicated, by D.H. Kelly who visited the Choga's hostel. O'Donovan also included the nearby townlands of area with W.M. Hennessy in 1871, and found it to 'Correspond in all Bryanbeg Upper and Lower in this ballybetagh (OSL WH: 38). They aspects with the narrative" (Kelly 1879: 254). He identifies Ceall are in fact on the other side of an adjacent hill and the two townlands Lasra with a holy well (marked 'Lady Well' on the first edition of Carrickaneha and Kiltober lie between them and Bruidhean Da Ordnance Survey map) near a ringfort in the northern comer of Choga. Bryanmore Upper townland; he claims a huge rock as mentioned in the text is still to be found in this well, and that it was the nearby Kiltober Coill [an] Tobair 'wood of the well' J = Parish of Drumraney, Name-book 1. Toner has suggested Kiltober can be connected to topur Cille Lasra 4 ~COi1l a tobair'. It is interesting to note that the '0' was inserted here, and it 'the well of Cill Lasra' mentioned in the text; its location over the is clear that a gap was deliberately left between the 'c' and the 'ill'. It is brow of the hill to the north-east of Bruidhean Da Choga agrees quite difficult to distinguish between coill and cill as both are usually anglicised 'kil/kill'. It is possible that O'Donovan inserted the '0' on consulting the local inhabitants. 2 Ordnance Survey Letters - the original letter numbers are referred to here. , 'wood of the well.' Translation written in ink in the OSNB; these were usually written by John O'Donovan. 66 67 AENGUS FINNEGAN BRUIDHEAN DA CHOGA ringfort which contained Bruidhean Da Choga, and not the uppermost and much larger ringfort to the south which O'Donovan identified as 1. Carrickneagh CGn. 563-185-375183 1802 Bruidhean Da Choga. A third ringfort located in the north-eastem 2. Carrickanea Larkin 1808 comer of Bryanmore Upper is known locally as the l'rahi:n'l. There 3. Carrickeneagh OSNB Drum. I: BS 1837 seems to have been some awareness of the significance of Bruidhean 4. carraic an <lithe OSNB Drum. 1 PI. 1837 Da Choga locally. Patrick Moran, a fanner in his mid-sixties from the 5. Carraig an Eithigh 7 OSNB Drum. 1 1837 neighbouring townland of Cloghbreen, recounts his father telling him 6. Carrick-an-eagh BNS 1937/8 "there were five Breens in Ireland", 'The Breen' in Bryanmore Upper 7. l'karika,ne:1 Patrick Morans 2009 townland being one of them. Attempts have been made in the past to link a hill called Cnoc in Carrickaneha Carraig an Fheich 'rock of the raven' Choscair or Sliabh Beag, which is mentioned in the text,9 with Cnoc Aiste. Given the strikingly unobstructed aligurnent between Bruidhean O'Donovan recounts a tradition that a large rock found in Da Choga and Cnoc Aiste the temptation to do so is obvious. Panl Carrickaneha townland had been thrown there by a giant from Cnoc 6 Walsh has, however, comprehensively dismissed snch claims, instead Aiste hill three miles distant (OSL WH: 46). The same story identifYing Cnoc in Choscair with Knockycusker (Walsh 1935: 393- explaining the supposed trajectory of the house-sized rock found on 97). This is a townland some fourteen miles to the east, which seems the highest point in Carrickaneha townland has been repeated to me in qnite far away relative to many of the other identifiable places the locality. The aligurnent between the two hills is quite striking, with mentioned in the text - even if, as has been suggested, the context an open low plain stretching out between, eliciting a somewhat implies a considerable distance from Brnidhean Da Choga (Toner obvious folk explanation of the initial Carraig (Carrick) element. It is 2007: 187). In any case, Walsh's argument is shaky here in that he interesting that Carrickaneha is not mentioned in any of the major suggests, in dismissing a link between Cnoc in Choscair and Cnoc seventeenth-century sources, unlike the townlands around it which are Aiste, that the manner in which the alternative name Sliabh Beag is mentioned frequently.