Can anyone tell me what a "Drumhilla" is? I see it associated with real estate listings. I thought it was a town, but now I'm having doubts.
Assuming you are speaking about a Drumhilla in Cavan, you are correct that there is no town of that name in the county. However, there are a number of townlands called Drumhilla or Drumhillagh in the county. In Ireland, a townland is the smallest administrative land division, usually a few hundred acres in area. Townlands may contain a village or may simply be farmland. In the vicinity of larger towns, suburban areas frequently adopt the name of the townland on which they are built.
As a place name, Drumhilla probably derives from the Gaelic word Droim meaning back or ridge i.e. Drumhilla means Hilla's ridge - Hilla may have been somebody's name in centuries past and may be a derivative of the name Fintan. However, as is the case with so many Irish place names, the origins of the name are probably lost in history.
Our user name 'ragoora' is the name of our townland (three dwellings and many fields) and it would only be used by the people in our immediate village (thirty odd dwellings spaced out over a variety of townlands) but, thinking back, it was indeed used by the Estate Agent ('Realtor') on the housing details...
Since we don't have postcodes/zipcodes and road names or numbers in remote rural areas in Ireland it presumably also helps the postal services too? Whenever we get (non postal) deliveries the directions are along the lines of 'the cottage with three red chimneys 2 km past the cottage with one red chimney on the turn off past the GAA' and the name of the townland, the village and the nearest town - as many delivery drivers have told us satnav is redundant here!
K+P
Thank you so very much. Your reply was an enourmous help!
I appreciate your response. It will help me in my research. Family records indicate that my grandmother came from Drumhilla, County Cavan, but now I have confirmation that the town name is incorrect.
County Cavan is chiefly rural and is generally regarded as the 'drumlin' county. Drumlins are small hills of which are plentifull here. Any area which has the name 'drum' or 'drom' as part of its name usually denotes it as being hilly territory.
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