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Caisleán an Mhuilinn
(Castle of the Mill) may be the original Gaelic place name of
Castlewellan.
Another possibility is
that the proper Gaelic version of the second element of the place name
is Uidhilin, and that
it was named after the Irish family who preceded the Magennis clan in
that area. They were called in English McQuillan and would have predated
the mills by a considerable number of years.
Caiseal is more
likely as the first element in the place name than the more formal
caisleán in view of the low military strategic importance of the place
in antiquity and the absence of an any formal or informal reference to a
Norman or post-Norman castle, such as there is nearby at Dundrum.
Caiseal is the Irish word for a stone compound or farmhouse, and is a
not-infrequent element in County Down place names.
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The Ins, Outs and Whereabouts of Castlewellan
Stories from
a small town in Northern Ireland - by Patsy Mullen
CLICK HERE to download the
entire book in .pdf (Adobe
Reader) format.
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