What is recorded here

Forgeland still bears the bruised name of the seventeenth-century ironworks Sir Charles Coote forced into the angle where the Nore and Mountrath Rivers meet. The water did not flow politely around human ambition; it slammed against stone, drove shafts, and handed Coote the brutal strength needed to melt local ore into usable iron. The gleaming town of Mountrath emerged later, but Forgeland remained the wounded root, preserving the heat and violence that built the region's early identity.

Unlocated seventeenth century Ironworks set up Sir Charles Coote who established Iron works at Mountrath, on the earl of Londonderry's estates at Ironmills near Ballinakill and at Mountmellick (Feehan 1983, 337). The three principal ironworks in Laois were all located in the angle made by the confluence of two rivers. The Mountrath works were located in the townland of Forest, south of the modern town, in the angle made by the Nore and Mountrath Rivers, this piece of land still bears the name of 'Forgeland' (Feehan 1983, 338). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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