Crookstown (Irish: Baile an Chrócaigh) is a village in the south of County Kildare, Ireland. It lies in the townland of Crookstown Upper on the R448 road where it meets the R415 regional road, about 75 km (47 mi) south of Dublin. It has a few hundred inhabitants, a church, a primary school, a petrol station/rest area on the N9, restaurant and some craft shops.[citation needed] It is less than one kilometre from the larger neighbouring village of Ballitore, and Crookstown is treated as part of Ballitore for census purposes.
Crookstown
Baile an Chrócaigh | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Little Theatre, R415 and St. Mary and Laurence Church, designed by J. J. McCarthy in 1860 | |
  Crookstown Location in Ireland | |
| Coordinates: 53°01′11″N 6°48′10″W / 53.019722°N 6.802778°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| County | County Kildare |
| Elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-1 (IST (WEST)) |
| Irish Grid Reference | S797969 |
Name
editThe Placenames Database of Ireland records Crookstown in Irish as Baile an Chrócaigh (the town of Chrócaigh).[1][2][3] Irish folklorist Tomás MacCormaic has stated that the name is a corruption of Bile Mac Cruaich (the Sacred Tree of the Sons of Cruaich), an ancient name for the parish of Narraghmore, which adjoins Crookstown. The name was recorded in Loca Patriciona,[4] and it is possible that when first translated into English Bile became Baile, while Chrócaigh is a modern Irish variation of the personal name Cruaich. The tree was named after the two sons of Cruaich mac Duilge,[5] Macha and h-Eircc, who were part of the Dál Cormaic, a Gaelic dynasty in the locality in the 5th century.
Public transport
editThe village is served by bus route 880 operated by Kildare Local Link on behalf of the National Transport Authority. There are several buses each day including Sunday linking the village to Castledermot, Carlow and Naas as well as villages such as Moone in the area.[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Baile an Chrócaigh Íochtarach / Crookstown Lower". logainm.ie. Placenames Commission. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ^ "Baile an Chrócaigh Uachtarach / Crookstown Upper". logainm.ie. Placenames Commission. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ^ "Baile an Chrócaigh Thoir / Crookstown East". logainm.ie. Placenames Commission. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ^ John Francis Shearman (1874). "Loca Patriciana - No. VII". The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland. 3 (20): 290. JSTOR 25506661.
Patrick alighted on a hillock, which was then called Bile Mac Cruaich
- ^ "Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála", Corpus of Electronic Texts, UCC, 1160
- ^ "Locals Encouraged to Use New Bus Route Serving Villages from Castledermot to Kilcullen". martinheydon.com.
