Townland Tales: Animal or mineral?

I enjoy ambiguous placenames and few appear less misleading than Killaghoor (‘Coill an Chúir’, ‘Wood of the (?)Kite’). I went there recently, and my coy satnav informed me I was in Sandyhill all the while.
The townland of Killaghoor stretches from Altamont Street in the Westport Urban area south to Ballynacarrick (‘Rocky Townland’) Lough, which it shares with the townlands of Carrowbaun (An Cheathrú Bhán, ‘The (?)Grassy Quarter’) and Moyhastin (Maigh Aistín, ‘Aistín’s (Hastings?) Plain’).
The question-mark before the word ‘kite’ indicates an element of doubt on behalf of the placename specialists. The kite bird species became extinct from Ireland by the early 1800s. In 2007, a programme saw the reintroduction of the red kite to County Wicklow. The name of the bird in Irish is ‘cúr,’ pronounced ‘coor.’

Frothy findings
‘Cúr’ or ‘cubhar’ has other meanings that I think may be more apt in this instance. It can be translated as ‘foam, froth, scum’. Earlier placename specialists like John O’Donovan (1838) have accepted ‘Wood of the Foam or Froth’ as the best possible translation of this townland name.
I would go further and, in the light of modern geological knowledge, suggest that the name may derive from the presence of talc in the area to the north of Ballynacarrick Lough. Talc is a common metamorphic mineral in rocky belts that contain ultramafic rocks, such as soapstone (a high-talc rock), and within whiteschist and blueschist metamorphic terranes. Given the nature of this material to ‘foam’ or ‘froth’, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that this is how the place got named in the first instance. There are lots of woods nearby, such as Derrygarve (‘Doire Garbh’ or ‘Rough Wood’), but none in Killaghoor these days.
A study by Ronan Hennessy et al (2014/2019) is revealing: “The site comprises two open, abandoned surface quarries on elevated ground situated to the south of Westport. The Geological System/Age and Primary Rock Type is Talc schist rocks of the Deer Park Complex. Considered Cambrian-Ordovician, the age of the Deer Park Complex remains the subject of debate among geologists, though it is certainly pre-Silurian. Exploration work was carried out at the site, the results of which indicated that there are an estimated 3.5 million tonnes of talc-magnesite in the townland of Killaghoor and the surrounding area. Talc-magnesite makes up 75-85 percent of the bedrock at the site (the remainder consisting of serpentinite and other minerals).”
Confusingly, the Irish-English dictionary definition of ‘cúr’ or ‘cubhar’ also includes ‘pumice stone’. However, pumice is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals, whereas talc carbonate is nothing but a rock sequence or a mineral composition found in metamorphic ultramafic rocks. It is the latter that is found in Killaghoor, and the one more likely to give rise to foam on the surface ground, as mentioned.

Centuries of change
Killaghoor townland is listed twice on the townlands.ie, and the website’s maps show the locations and areas of both adjacent parts – one in Westport Urban Electoral Area, the other in the Rural, divided by the Carrowbeg River.
In 1838, ‘a flour mill and part of Westport town’ were in the northwest of this townland, that encompasses both Altamont Street and Sandyhill. The river runs east along the eastern boundary of Killaghoor.
The townland name has an interesting (and ever-evolving) chronology, stretching back to the early 1600s. In 1617, it was written Coilancowarre and Coillancower, and by 1635, this had transformed into Killecower, taken from the Strafford Inquisition. Throughout the 1700s the name was variously cited as Kilacore, Coylecure, Killcowry alias Killcoore, Coylecore, Killcowry alias Killcoore, Killcoor and Kellcoore.
The 19th century gave Kellcoor, Killcoor, Kellcoor, Keelcoor in the (Marquis) of Sligo Rent Rolls. William Bald named it Kelaghure on his 1830 map, and up until 1838 it was given as Killacoor, Kellcoor, and finally, Killaghoor, its present form. Thus, the Ordnance Survey ‘settled’ on Killaghoor in the ‘name books’ of 1838, while the Rent Office called it Kellcoor.
John O’Donovan spelt it Killaghoor, and pronounced it ‘Killa-choor’; while another scholar of the period, P Giblin (1838), translated it as Cíll a Cur (‘Froth Wood’). O’Donovan formally rendered it as Coill a Cubhair and Coill a’ Chúbhair (‘Wood of the Froth’).
I say ‘ever-evolving’ because the website logainm.ie calls it ‘Coorwood’ in English, from the genitive Irish ‘Coill an Cúir’.
In a nice twist, Coill an Chúir (‘Red Kite Wood’) in Sandyhill is one of the gardens on the Clew Bay Garden Trail. A large wildlife garden planted with native species, it boasts a young mixed-species woodland among its many wonderful aspects. It was open to the public last weekend as part of the Clew Bay Garden Trail Summer 2023 series of open gardens, which raises funds for a host of charities.