How to browse
In addition to search, you can explore Ireland’s placenames by browsing in a certain area on the interactive map. The map can be accessed from any page on the site by clicking on the BROWSE tab at the top under the logo.
Lists of placenames
In addition to the map, you can use this website to browse lists of placenames. There are number of places to access these lists:
- Hierarchy links.
- Glossary links.
- Source links.
Hierarchy links
Ireland’s system of geographical administration is organised hierarchically. The county is the highest unit. A county is subdivided into several baronies, a barony into several civil parishes and a parish into several townlands. Electoral divisions are also sometimes used for certain administrative purposes. In addition to these, the database has information about many non-administrative geographical units such as rivers, mountains and islands. All these units are connected to one another in a vast hierarchical network that spans the whole country.
You can navigate through this network by using the links that appear with each place. You will see the links as you look at the textual data of a place:
- When you are looking at information about a place which is located fairly low in the hierarchy, say a townland, you will get a list displaying the parish, the barony and the county in which the townland is located. You can click on those links to get more details about them.
- When you are looking at information about a place which is fairly high in the hierarchy, say a barony, the right column will contain a list displaying the types of sub-units the barony contains. For example, if you are looking at the barony of Arklow in County Wicklow, the list will tell you that there are 5 towns, 13 parishes, 4 rivers etc. in this barony. You can click on those to see a more detailed list, such as a list of all parishes in the barony.