Local place names – Killina N.S.

From Margaret Cavanagh (c.1937)
When the women of our village “Clúin-a-see” would be leaving a cake out to cool on the window-sill they would first take a bite of it. The fairies would take it only for that.
There is a field near my house it is called poll-a-Feóla. It is called that name because in olden times robbers used to steal sheep from farmers and kill them and hide them there. There is a great big heap of stones in the middle of the hole.
There is another hole near our house and it is called pollac-na-mbó. It is called that because since it was made there are cattle going into it for water. One time people were trying to make a road down to it. Every night the stones used to be put back to the place they cleared. One night they stayed there after six and they saw a stick pointing towards them. Nobody tried to “ready” it since because they think it is haunted.
There is another hole near my house. It is called poll-beacháchán it is so-called because a man was following a fox on horse-back and they fell into the water and got drowned. There is another field called poll na Choonach. There are badgers living in it.
There is another field and my father said there was war in it once. There is another hole called poll-eidhin. It was choked by ivy long ago. The people filled it up with stones for fear the cattle would fall into it.
There are some people great for putting “the bad eye” on things. They would say “Isn’t that a fine child” and would not say “God bless him”. There was a woman and a boy coming home from town at ten in the night and every step she took there used to be a candle-stick before her on the road and she put them in her basket and kept one in her hand and when she reached home she had only the one that she had in her hand and people say that it is in Gort yet.
There is a “lios” near my house and it is down in history. The name is liosin-a-mheala.