Boreen
Country lane or narrow rural road in Ireland
A boreen or bohereen (/bɔːˈriːn/ bor-EEN; Irish: bóithrín [ˈbˠoː(h)ɾʲiːnʲ, bˠoː(h)ˈɾʲiːnʲ], meaning 'a little road') is a country lane, or narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland.
"Boreen" also appears sometimes in names of minor urban roads such as Saint Mobhi Bóithrín (Irish: Bóithrín Mobhí), commonly known as Mobhi Boreen in Glasnevin, Dublin.
Boreens may be private rights of way that are not open for public use.
In parts of Ulster, a boreen is often called a loanin, an Ulster Scots word.
01Etymology
The word "boreen" comes from the Irish word bóithrín ("little road"), which in turn comes from bóthar ("road").
In origin, a bóthar was a cow path (bó means cow), a track the width of two cows, so bóithrín meant a little cow path. Bóthar was one of the five types of road identified in medieval Irish legal texts, the others being slige (on which two chariots could pass), rót (on which one chariot and two riders could pass), lámraite (a road connecting two major roads) and tógraite (a road leading to a forest or a river).
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Boreen”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Cleanderry - geograph.org.uk - 267961.jpg by Nigel Cox, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Boreen in Spiddal.jpg by User:O'Dea, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
