Cullahill or Cullohill () is a small village situated on the R639 road in

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Cullahill takes its name from an ancient forest that covered Cullahill Mountain and extended down to

Cullahill Castle Cullahill Castle was the principal stronghold of the MacGillapatricks of Upper Ossory built around 1425 and destroyed around 1650. Cullahill Castle takes its name from an ancient forest that covered Cullahill Mountain and extended down to Cu ...

History

A priory of Augustine canons was founded here in 550 by O'Dempsey, under the invocation of St. Tighernach who is now the patron saint of the area. The village is home to an impressive early 15th century tower house, once the principal stronghold of the MacGillapatricks of

Upper Ossory Upper Ossory () was an administrative barony in the south and west of Queen's County (now County Laois) in Ireland. In late Gaelic Ireland it was the túath of the Mac Giolla Phádraig ( Fitzpatrick) family and a surviving remnant of the once l ...

. The castle bears the image of a

sheela na gig A sheela na gig is a figurative carving of a naked woman displaying an exaggerated Human vulva, vulva. These carvings, from the Middle Ages, are Grotesque (architecture), architectural grotesques found throughout most of Europe on Architecture ...

. Under their patronage, a medical school flourished at Aghmacart townland, about a mile from the castle from before 1500 to c.1610. It was conducted by the Ó Conchubhair family. Its physicians included

Donnchadh Óg Ó Conchubhair Donnchadh () is a masculine given name common to the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages. It is composed of the elements ''donn'', meaning "brown" or "dark" from Donn a Gaelic God; and ''chadh'', meaning "chief" or "noble". The name is also writte ...

(

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1581-1611), Risteard Ó Conchubhair (1561–1625), Donnchadh Albanach Ó Conchubhair (1571–1647) and

Cathal Ó Duinnshléibhe Cathal is a common given name in Ireland. The name is derived from two Celtic language, Celtic elements: the first, ''cath'', means "battle"; the second element, ''val'', means "rule". There is no feminine form of ''Cathal''. The Gaelic name has ...

(fl. 1592-1611). According to 1837 records, Cullohill was listed as a village in the parish of Aghmacart. Aghmacart is now a

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

of Cullahill and contains an old church and graveyard which are still in use. It is now part of Durrow parish and is in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Ossory The Diocese of Ossory (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in eastern Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is one of three suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, ...

Activities

Cullohill is surrounded by countryside and has several public walkways and trekking trails in the nearby hills.

Public transport

TFI Local link operated by JJ Kavanagh and Sons provides a daily journey each way from Portlaoise to Cashel 828 and Thurles 858 replacing M&A Coaches, Bus Eireann and Aircoach

Sport

The local GAA club is The Harps which was formed in 1984 as an amalgamation with Durrow. Up until then Cullohill had its own hurling team and had won the

Laois senior hurling championship The Laois Senior Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition contested by top-tier Laois GAA clubs. The Laois County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association has organised it since 1888. Clough–Ballacolla are the title holders, de ...

in 1955 and 1964. The 1955 team was captained by Lar Dunphy and the 1964 team by Martin Mahony.

Notable people

Darina Allen Darina Hilda Allen (née O'Connell; born 13 June 1948) is an Irish chef, food writer, TV personality and founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School. Biography Darina Allen was born in Cullohill, County Laois, the eldest of nine children. The renown ...

, née O'Connell, a

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in Books, printed publications. While telev ...

, is a native of Cullohill.

References

* ''The medical school at Aghmacart, Queen's County'', Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha, ''Ossory, Laois and Leinster'' 2, (2006)

External links

Cullohill Castle.Durrow Community WebsiteHarps Camogie Club Website
{{County Laois Towns and villages in County Laois FitzPatrick dynasty