Mayfield
Baile na mBocht | |
---|---|
Suburb | |
Coordinates: 51°54′48″N 08°26′03″W / 51.91333°N 8.43417°W | |
Country | Ireland |
Province | Munster |
Administrative area | Cork (city) |
Time zone | UTC+0 (WET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-1 (IST (WEST)) |
Mayfield, historically Ballinamought (from Irish Baile na mBocht, meaning 'town of the poor'),[1][2] is a suburb on the north-side of Cork City, Ireland. Mayfield is part of the Dáil constituency of Cork North-Central.
The area was originally called Baile na mBocht in Irish and Anglicised as "Ballinamought".[2] A number of works, including those of etymologist and historian Patrick Weston Joyce, translate Baile na mBocht as "town of the poor [people]".[2][3] Other sources translate it as "town of the sick",[citation needed] as the area was reputedly the site of a medieval leper colony.[3] A path leading from the area towards the river, known in Irish as Siúl na Lobhar (literally 'Lepers Walk') is known in English as "Lover's Walk".[4]
Mayfield is bounded to the north by the Glen River Valley, an aquiferous geological formation produced by a receding glacier during the last ice age. Habitats, flora and fauna within the area include the small cudweed and the sand martin, a migratory bird species that returns from North Africa each spring to breed in the porous sand cliffs along sections of the river valley north.[citation needed]
Ballinamought near Cork; Baile-na-mbocht , the town of the poor people
The townland name, Ballinamought West, derives from Baile na mBought, meaning the town of the poor. It is believed that Baile na mBocht was a leper colony during early medieval times
Lovers' Walk [..] is a mistranslation of Siúl na Lobhar, or Lepers' Walk, as there was once a leper colony in the area