The Story of the Kilcoole Name

The Irish name Cill Chomhghaill means “the church of Comhghall,” referring to an early Christian church associated with the saint Comhghall. The name places Kilcoole firmly within the ancient Christian landscape of east Wicklow.

Unlike modern commuter settlements, Kilcoole has a history stretching deep into medieval Ireland.

The first written record of the name appears in 1179, when Kilcoole was mentioned in a papal document. By that time, the settlement was already part of an established ecclesiastical landscape.

The medieval church remains one of the most important physical reminders of this past.

For centuries the area was a rural settlement surrounded by farms, churches, castles and small communities. Its position near the coast also made it part of the network of roads and settlements running along the eastern side of Wicklow.

The medieval world was not peaceful.

Following the Nine Years' War at the beginning of the seventeenth century, land in the district changed hands as English settlers acquired property. Later, Kilcoole was caught up in the upheavals of the seventeenth century.

On Christmas Day 1641, Confederate rebels were attacked and defeated at Kilcoole during the Irish uprising. A few years later, in 1649, Cromwell's army passed through the district.

For the people living here, these great national conflicts were not distant events. Soldiers marched along local roads, castles became military positions, and families found themselves living through changes in land ownership and political power.

The eighteenth century brought another important change.

The development of the coach road through Kilcoole connected the village more effectively with the wider region. An inn was established at the crossroads, reflecting the importance of the road to travellers and trade.

Then came the railway.

The railway linked Kilcoole with Dublin and the towns of the Wicklow coast, encouraging gradual growth. The railway station originally served both Kilcoole and Newtownmountkennedy, showing how closely connected the two settlements were becoming.

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Kilcoole grew dramatically as Wicklow's eastern corridor became increasingly connected to Dublin.

Yet the old name remains unchanged.

Cill Chomhghaill still recalls the small Christian settlement that existed here centuries before the railway, the coach road, the modern housing estates and the commuter traffic.

Kilcoole's story is therefore one of quiet continuity.

It was never as large or strategically famous as Wicklow or Arklow, but generation after generation continued to live around the same ancient church landscape.

The modern town may look very different from medieval Kilcoole, but the name preserves the oldest chapter of its history.