Mount Leinster The name Mount Leinster is old, we find it on the Down Survey maps of c.1658 written as Mount Linster and it possibly goes back to the post Norman settlements of the twelfth century. As things stand in 2014, the summit area of Mount Leinster is emasculated by a fenestration of masts inside a gated compound with three metre high security fencing. The first TV mast and access road were built in the early 1960s, with recent years seeing new masts being added to the complex. Its a sad state of affairs for what was once likely an important site for our ancestors. Well leave aside for the present the question of whether Leinster in Mount Leinster is of the same origin as the province of Leinster. Let us concentrate on Mount Leinster and what we know of it. Firstly John ODonovan writing for the Ordnance Survey in 1839 noted that a local proverb, recorded an older Irish name of Stuadh Laighean and that it was considered one of the highest mountains in Ireland. Now Stuadh or Stua comes from the Irish for an angle and is commonly used for pointed peaks. Laighean which is said neither like lion or line but a bit of both, refers to a people cum territory which in turn was named after a type of spear. Therefore Stuadh Laighean means the pointed peak of Laighean Another related old name is Suidhe Laighean - the seat of Laighean, similar in form to say Seefin or Seechon in the Dublin Mountains. The name Stuadh Laighean is still known in the area and is now pronounced like Stoolyen. Its used for the immediate southern shoulder of Mount Leinster, a boggy spur where turf was cut. Its as if the old Irish name was kept but couldnt co-exist with Mount Leinster and so was pushed a little to the south. I wrote earlier that Sturra is a local name used for top of Blackstairs Mountain and that I consider stair is a version of Sturra, where Sturr means a peak. Importantly, the same term Sturr is found at Mount Leinster - the main photo here is taken in Ballycrystal on the Wexford side. The highest house at the back of the valley, right under Mount Leinster is where Dwyers of Sturr or Dwyers of The Sturr have lived for a good many years. The river draining this valley is locally the Sturra River. Dwyers are literally Dwyers of The Sturr or Peak as they live directly below it. My theory is that -ster in Mount Leinster is a corruption of Sturr, that both Blackstairs Mountain and Mount Leinster were locally referred to as Sturr or peaks. In order to differentiate between the two Sturr, the English word Black was added as a prefix in case of Blackstairs whilst Laighean was added as a prefix for the hill we discuss here, so Stuadh or Suidhe Laighean became Laighean Sturr and contracted into Lein-ster. In other words that ster and stair have both the same original meaning of a peak. The English word Mount was then added superflously, just as it appears in Blackstairs Mountain. Finally, if anyone knows of photographs or illustrations of the summit of Mount Leinster prior to the construction of the mast, Id be most interested to learn of them.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:38:16 +0000