Kilcoo ( – from the legend that

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...

's body stayed there while on its way to

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

to be buried)Placenames Database of Ireland
(see archival records) is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It lies between

Rathfriland Rathfriland () is a market town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is north-east of Newry town centre. History In older documents written in English, the town's name was usually spelt ''Rathfylan'' or ''Rathfrilan''.

and

Castlewellan Castlewellan () is a small town in County Down, in the south-east of Northern Ireland close to the Irish Sea. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve ...

and is within the

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Irish language, Irish: ''Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin'') is a local authority in Northern Ireland that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaces Down District Council and Newry and ...

area. The village is on the A25 Dublin Road south-west of Castlewellan. Kilcoo had a population 1415 people in the 2001 Census.

Places of interest

Near Kilcoo is Lough Island Reavy, a small man-made lough. East of the lough is Drumena Cashel, a stone

ringfort Ringforts or ring forts are small circular fortification, fortified settlements built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are ...

that was used in the Early Christian period (500–1200 AD).

Education

Saint Malachy's Primary School is a mixed gender school for students between the age of 4 and 11. It was opened in September 1970.

Sport

The village has one sporting club,

Kilcoo GAC Kilcoo Owen Roes (Irish: Eoghan Rúa Cill Chua) is a Gaelic Athletic Association club from Kilcoo, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the most successful club in the Down Senior Football Championship, having won the competition 21 times. Th ...

. This a

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

club with teams in

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

and

Camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

2001 Census

Kilcoo is classified as a rural settlement by the

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA, ) is an executive agency within the Department of Finance (Northern Ireland), Department of Finance in Northern Ireland. The organisation is responsible for the collection and publicat ...

(NISRA) . Kilcoo is named as Tollymore Ward SOA 1 (Super Output Area) as the data contains the village itself and surrounding townlands of the village. On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 1415 people living in the Kilcoo area. Of these: *29.6% were under 16 years old and 12.2% were aged 60 and above *53.1% of the population were male and 46.9% were female *99.6% were from a Catholic Community Background and 0.4% were from a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' Community Background. *1.1% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.

Civil parish of Kilcoo

The civil parish is mainly in the historic

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Iveagh Upper, Lower Half with one townland in

Iveagh Upper, Upper Half Iveagh Upper, Upper Half is the name of a barony in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was created by 1851 with the division of the barony of Iveagh Upper into two. It lies to the west and south of the county, split in half by the Lordship of New ...

Townlands

The civil parish contains the following townlands: * Aghacullion *

Ardaghy Ardaghy () is a rural townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It has an area of 372.6 acres (1.51 km2). It is situated in the civil parish of Kilcoo and the historic barony of Iveagh Upper, Lower Half, located 3.5 miles west of Castl ...

* Ballaghbeg * Ballyhafry *

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated ...

* Burrenbane * Burrenreagh * Clonachullion * Cock Mountain Common *

Cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...

* Drumena * Fofannybane * Fofannyreagh * Letalian * Moneyscalp * Moyad * Slievenalargy * Tollymore Park * Tullybranigan * Tullynasoo * Tullyree

References

{{authority control Villages in County Down