Killagoola (Cill Ogúla) is a small
townland
A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...
lying in the civil parish of
Moycullen in
County Galway,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It is located about 8 miles from
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...
city, just off the
N59 road which travels north from Galway towards
Clifden
Clifden (, meaning "stepping stones") is a coastal town in County Galway, Ireland, in the region of Connemara, located on the Owenglin River where it flows into Clifden Bay. As the largest town in the region, it is often referred to as "the Capi ...
.
Its name is derived from the Irish name of ''Cill Ogúla'', which means Church on the Shoulder (of a hill).
Indeed there is the ruins of a small church within the boundaries of Killagoola, on the largest site in the area, Crú Hill.
Until the first half of the 20th century,
Gaelic was the language used in the area, but this was lost in the latter half, with a change to English.
Killagoola has locally derived place-names such as Mountview, Sruthan, Sceith and Baile Thiar to distinguish areas of the townland.
Lough Kip river runs from the lake, Lough Kip, through the townland towards
Ballyquirke Lake, a feeder for the much bigger lake, the
Corrib.
Most of the land in the area is used as farmland, reclaimed from boggy or mountainous areas.
Some of the families living in the area have lived there for generations and their names can be viewed on land deeds from the 19th century. After a drop in the townland population from the 1960s to the 1980s, an influx of people in the 1990s, due to its proximity to Galway city, has bolstered the small population.
References
Townlands of County Galway
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