TOWNLAND TALES: Getting to grips with grassy places in Murrisk Barony

IN Irish placenames, the anglicised syllable ‘lena’ or ‘leena’ comes from the Irish word ‘léana’, meaning ‘low-lying grassy place’, ‘greensward’ or ‘lawn’. Depending on which ‘Lena’ townland you’re in, the pronunciation can alternate between ‘layna’ and ‘lee-na.’ (This is not to be confused with the very similar-sounding word ‘léine’, meaning ‘shirt,’ pronounced ‘lay-na’.)
The word we are focusing on here, léana, is no longer used in common speech, even in Irish-speaking parts of Mayo, according to one of the late placename specialist Fiachra Mac Gabhann’s informants, but ‘it is remembered among older people’.
There are plenty examples of léana townlands in Mayo, and smaller ‘field’ names are also in abundance. Rather than listing them all with their translations, it is more revealing to examine the accompanying word or words that qualify the particular ‘grassy place’ and explain why the townland is named as such.
In the barony of Murrisk, the three most well-known ‘Lenas’ or ‘Leenas’ are Lenacraigaboy, Lenanadurtaun and Leenavesta. There is another Lenanadurtaun in Kilcommon (civil) parish, in the Barony of Erris.

Lenacraigaboy
LOOKING at Lenacraigaboy first, if you have ever climbed Croagh Patrick, then you have walked along its eastern boundary. John Joe Gavin and John Grady, who farm sheep in this area, both refer to it simply as ‘lay-na’ and they call the Créige Buí – the Yellow Crags – simply ‘the crega’, and they also differentiate between the ‘high crega’ and ‘low crega’.
Léana na Creige Buí can have a few different meanings and connotations. Seán Buí translates as Yellow John but means John Bull, a term for England, while in Irish mythology, fair-haired people, with ‘yellow’, flaxen or blonde hair were often nicknamed ‘So-and-so Buí’, as opposed to ‘so-and-so Bán’. The Irish words for white and yellow were often used interchangeably.
It does not require too much of a stretch of the imagination to get to ‘gold’, or in Irish, ‘ór’. Perhaps this is what was meant when the crags were first described as being buí or yellow? I could not find anything very yellow when I went exploring there, so, as always, it is a little ambiguous.

Lenanadurtaun
THIS townland is situated on mountainous land south of Croagh Patrick; lakes, notably Lough Nacorra, and rivers border three sides of it. There are only three fields indicated on the first six-inch map of this townland, and they are in the southern part.
It is likely that ‘léana’ is qualified here by the word ‘tortán’ meaning a ‘tuft or clump’, ‘a clod’, ‘a hillock’ or ‘a holm’, and not by ‘dartán’ the Irish for ‘calf; herd or drove’ and sometimes ‘heifer’.
A townland of the same name, Lenanadurtaun, in the barony of Erris/Iorrais (Census 1851) and Leamadartaun (sic) in the barony of Tirawley are both of the same origin. This is despite the incorrect spelling of Tirawley’s Leamadartaun with an ‘m’, an anglicised version of the placename that gives the impression – and has led to some translators to claim – that it has something to do with the verb léim, ‘to jump’. The errant logic is understandable, as in the act of walking across a field of tortógs, one is forced to leap from one to the other to avoid falling into a bog hole. Leamadartaun could also, therefore, be (mis)taken to imply ‘Where the Calf (or Heifer) Leapt’.

Leenavesta
FINALLY, we come to Leenavesta. Note the different spelling, with two ‘e’s in the first syllable and one in the third. Leenavesta is in the Derrymore area of Drummin, beside Tawnyslinnaun, where Michael ‘Doctor’ McLoughlin lives. I called to see Michael with Pat Joyce (Cuileen) last week to ask him what he thought the townland name meant.
Léana Uí Bhiasta, Leenavesta, is translated by the experts as ‘Ó Biasta’s Grassy Place’ – from an old surname O’Beasty or Ó Biasta – “a small Mayo sept claiming descent from an early king of Connaught”, according to Edward Mac Lysaght in ‘The Surnames of Ireland’. This surname is mentioned with Uí Briúin in the ‘Great Book of Irish Genealogies’, known as ‘Leabhar Mór na nGenealach’, compiled between 1645 and 1666 by Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh in five volumes, and edited by Nollaig Ó Muraíle in 2003.
Michael, who has lived there all his life, agreed it could be derived from a surname, and he was aware of the name Beasty or Beastie.
However, in 1838, John O’Donovan offered Líon a Bhiasta meaning ‘Net of the Worm’. Bearing in mind that Lough Nacorra is not too far away and ‘corr’ may mean a ‘worm’ or ‘reptile’, it is not inconceivable that the ‘piast’ – one of St Patrick’s snakes – may have slithered over to these grassy meadows and hence the townland became Léana na bPiasta, anglicised to Leenavesta.
As usual, placenames can be slippery things!

Dr John O’Callaghan is a mountain walk leader who has organised and led expeditions both at home and abroad. He has served on the board of Mountaineering Ireland and is currently on the Irish Uplands Forum board.