Púca in placenames, a researcher’s nightmare
Inch or Inchaphuca/Inse an Phúcaigh
(logainm.ie #3600).
Date: 20/10/2025
Many of us of a certain vintage will know the meaning of Hiberno-English pooka ‘a sprite; a ghost; a bogey-man’, a rendering of Irish púca. In Irish tradition it is these spiteful little characters who are, amongst other things, responsible for rendering the sweet sméara dubha ‘blackberries’ (discussed in earlier notes) entirely inedible after Oíche Shamhna or Halloween. (See e.g. Schools’ Folklore Collection: Co. Mayo, Co. Wexford and Co. Dublin; cf. FGB s.v. púca na sméar; T. P. Dolan, púca.) As we reach the beginning of the Irish winter, we can discuss the tricky issue of the identification of the púca in townland names and other toponyms.
Possibly the most well-known example is Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca ‘the hole, pool, cave of the pooka’ (logainm.ie #113024) in Co. Wicklow (variant English spelling Poulaphouca), familiar today as the name of a massive reservoir also sometimes called the Blessington Lake(s). The reservoir took its name from the waterfall at Pollaphuca Bridge on the River Liffey. Although greatly enfeebled by the construction of the reservoir dam in 1939, this was once a magnificent natural feature: “a mighty fall called by the Natives Pullagh Fuckagh […] reported to be the greatest in Ireland” The Civil Survey [c 1654] Vol. VII, p. 288; “Poolapooka a remarkable Cataract” Noble & Keenan Map (Co. Kildare) (1752), etc. It is very unusual to find the generic poll referring to a waterfall (eDIL s.v. poll): the placename may have been transferred from the pool underneath, or – given its qualification by the element púca (eDIL s.v. púca) – a more figurative sense such as ‘foreboding place’ may have been intended from the beginning (FGB s.v. poll (8)).
We have many other examples of the placename Poll an Phúca ‘the hole, pool, cave of the pooka’. Another, less well-known instance in Co. Wicklow is the name of the townland Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca (logainm.ie #55309) near Arklow. In that case it appears that the name originally referred to the source of a spring on the parish boundary in the southeast corner of the townland, where a well is marked Pollaphuca on early editions of the Ordnance Survey 6ʺ map. Note the following description in the Namebook: “‘Pucks Hole’ at which a stream rises and runs southwards” (1839). (Irish was no longer spoken in this district at this time.)
In the west of Ireland, there are two separate townlands called Pollaphuca/Poll an Phúca in Co. Galway (logainm.ie #21453; #21627) and another in County Clare (logainm.ie #6921). We can almost certainly count the townland name Pollaphuca (logainm.ie #43687) in Co. Roscommon as another example, even though research has not been completed on the townland names of that county. (John O’Donovan wrote ‘Poll a’ phúca’ in the Namebook after spending the day with a local seanchaí: “O’Flyn […] knows every bush in the parish of Kiltullagh, the names of which he pronounced for me [while we examined] the Namebooks” (Ordnance Survey Letters (Roscommon) I 146 (5/7/1837).) In the north, we find that the English townland name Puckstown in Co. Louth is a pseudotranslation of original Irish Poll an Phúca (logainm.ie #33597).
Clearly, there was a tendency in Irish placenames to collocate the two elements poll ‘pool, hole, cave’ and púca. Dr. Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill, former Chief Placenames Officer, noted a total of 19 instances of Poll an Phúca in his important and comprehensive essay ‘An púca i logainmeacha’ [The púca in placenames], Ainm Vol. 2 (1987) pp. 96–113.
Examples among minor names include two instances of Poll an Phúca in Co. Waterford (logainm.ie #1421672; #1421028). One of these, in the Waterford Gaeltacht, is also known as Clais an Phúca ‘the trench of the pooka’ and simply An Gleann ‘the glen’ (#1421028). We find Clais an Phúca as a townland name in Cos. Kerry (#24499) and Tipperary (#1436889); and we find Gleann an Phúca ‘the glen of the pooka’ in Cos. Cork (#12339; #12966), Tipperary (#67204) and Waterford (#49075). In a similar semantic vein we find two historical examples of Log an Phúca ‘the hollow of the pooka’ in the Dublin Mountains – one of which possibly referred to a treacherous waterfall on a mountain stream (Mionlogainmneacha de bhunús Gaeilge i ngleannta Chontae Bhaile Átha Cliath [Minor placenames of Irish-language origin in the glens of Co. Dublin] p.153) – and Tóin an Phúca ‘the bottom(land) of the pooka’ in Flemingtown South or Tonaphuca (#25719) not far away in Co. Kildare. It would seem that in the Irish folk mind it was in little valleys and hollows like these – places called clais, gleann, log or in particular poll – that you were most likely to meet a púca, if you were so unlucky!
Given the frequency of references to the púca in placenames, you would be forgiven for thinking that Irish placenames rendered in anglicized spellings such as -fook, -pooka, -phucka, -phuca, puck(s)-, etc., are very straightforward to analyse. In fact this is where the placename researcher’s nightmare often begins. As Ó Cearbhaill (1987) discusses, these anglicized spellings can sometime represent the surname Pook/Puck or the given name Foulke, both of which are attested among the Anglo-Normans in Ireland (e.g. Fulke Furlang of Co. Wexford [anno 1395], Memoranda roll, 19–20 Richard II, membrane 7). Take for instance Inchaphuca (logainm.ie #3600) in Co. Carlow. At first glance, it would be reasonable to suspect that the original Irish name was Inse an Phúca ‘the holm of the pooka’. (Of course the standard anglicized spelling was chosen in 1839 precisely in order to reflect that supposed derivation.) However, the overall evidence actually reflects Inse an Phúcaigh ‘the holm of An Púcach’ (e.g. ‘Inchnefowkie’ (1593)), containing a gaelicized version of the Anglo-Norman surname of the type discussed in recent notes (An Púcach < Púc, a phonetic adaptation of English Pook/Puck).
Finally, having mentioned anglicized spellings, we should draw attention to the fact that the Ordnance Survey form of placenames whose local Irish name appeared to contain púca were in almost every instance standardized to -phuca (rather than -phooka, -fooka, etc.). This spelling derives from a very early decision made by John O’Donovan concerning a minor placename which was to be engraved on the maps in the townland of An Sián/Shean (#60574), Co. Fermanagh: “PollaPhuca, as in the Irish” (Ordnance Survey Memoranda (Fermanagh) p.163 (16/2/1835)). Rather exceptionally, this “Irish” spelling Pollaphuca was established as the standard anglicized form for all examples of the placename, except when the Survey progressed into Irish-speaking districts where the local pronunciation required rendering the first element as Poul-.
Not for the first time (and probably not for the last) we must point out that O’Donovan and his fellow scholars in the Topographical Department of the Ordnance Survey had grown up steeped in Irish culture and Irish-language placenames all their lives, and were far more sensitive to that heritage than their portrayal in the play Translations would have us believe.
(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)