Islands of Ireland: The smallest island yet in this series

Here are a few theories on what the name Eargold Island means — but let us know if if you have any more info on this

Eargold Island is one of many islands in Galway's Kinvara Bay. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Of the hundreds of thousands of entries on the indispensable placenames’ resource, logainm.ie, there is none for the County Galway island of Eargold. Every ‘rath’, ‘cill’, ‘baile’ and ‘lis’ is dutifully recorded, but this scrap of earth in Kinvara Bay goes undetected. However, as the resource says itself, it is a work in progress and light may yet be shed on this strange name. If any readers could enlighten this column it would be welcomed.

Nonetheless, an idea presents itself in the form of ’Eadar dha ghabhal’ which is ‘a place between two rivers’ and found in the near homonym Adrigole, County Cork, as well as Addragool and Addergoole. The only problem with this theory is that there are not two rivers on either side of the Eargold near Kinvara. Unless … there may have been streams that disappeared under the limestone — but this feels like chasing Alice down into her Wonderland.