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Laveroc

Sir,—I thoroughly enjoyed Samuel Kinirons’s article (HI 24.1, Jan./Feb. 2016) wherein he traced the footsteps of Richard II in the south-east in 1394 during his campaign against Art McMurrough. I was intrigued by the unsolved mystery as to the actual location of the place called ‘Laveroc’ in near-contemporaneous records, where Art and his wife were almost captured—so intrigued, in fact, that I did some speculative research. The initial syllable ‘La’ would suggest that it comes from the Irish word leath (half-, side or district), which is relatively common in Irish place-names, and the ‘v’ would suggest its Irish equivalent ‘bh’. It transpires that in the civil parish of Kildavin is ‘Barragh’, coming from the Irish beirreach (small hilltop). Therefore Leath-bheirreach (pronounced ‘Laveroc’) would be the hillside to the immediate north-west of Kildavin village on the way up to the Barragh hilltop itself. Curiously, there is a specific area here known as Ráithín Ardach (fort of the high-field). This may well warrant further investigation.—Yours etc.,

CIARÁN Mac SAMHÁIN
Dublin 18