Geographical centre of Ireland

The geographical centre of Ireland, according to an investigation and calculation carried out by the Official Irish Government Mapping Agency, Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi)(as published on the official OSi website on 24th February 2022) is near the community of Castletown Geoghegan, about 14kms from Mullingar in County Westmeath and lies at the Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinates 633015.166477, 744493.046768, ( Latitude: 53.4494762 and Longitude : -7.5029786) Google Maps : https://goo.gl/maps/cU3K5DguEG7c2zGu5 [Reference : Ordinance Survey Ireland website Blog : https://osi.ie/blog/].

It sits in the townland of Adamstown within a National Monuments Zone, on the location of an ancient graveyard and near the remains of Kilbride Church.

In order to calculate the exact geographic centre of Ireland OSi decided that the best methodology to employ was to use the most up-to-date, openly available geospatial data and widely used geographic information system (GIS) technology.  Specifically, OSi used Esri’s Mean Centre Point tool in ArcMap and features data for the Republic of Ireland from its own open-source data set, OSi Admin Areas Ungeneralised, as well as an openly available OSNI Largescale County Boundaries data set from Land & Property Services of Northern Ireland (LPS).

This investigation to identify the exact geographic centre of Ireland assumed a calculation that would take in the whole of the mainland Island of Ireland but exclude the islands of which there are approximately 8,000 mapped islands, outcrops etc.

It is however based on current data and based on current coastal data and any coastal erosion or accretion historically or in the future would change the data and change the exact location calculated.   Different methodologies used in the past have identified a number of other locations as the geographical centre of Ireland principally in and around the town of Athlone.

In the 2000s, Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI; the national mapping agency of the Republic of Ireland) gave a point in the townland of Carnagh East (Irish: An Charnach Thoir), County Roscommon on the western shore of Lough Ree, at 53°30′N 8°00′W. It is opposite the Cribby Islands and 9 kilometres (6 mi) north-northwest of Athlone.[1] Lecarrow is the closest population centre.

An alternative location for the centre of Ireland has been given, at a point three kilometres (2 mi) south of Athlone in eastern County Roscommon.[2] This point is close to the average of the extreme points of Ireland: Malin Head at 55°23′N, Brow Head (near Mizen Head) at 51°28′N, Burr Point on the Ards Peninsula at 5°25′W, and Slea Head at 10°30′W, placing the centre of Ireland at approximately 53°24′N 8°00′W.

Hudson’s Pillar on a small island offshore in Hudson Bay in Roscommon also claimed historically to represent the location of the centre of Ireland.

In Irish mythology, The Hill of Uisneach (which is on the road from Mullingar to Athlone, about 17.7 kilometres west of Mullingar and two kilometres from the village of Loughanavally) was generally considered to be the ceremonial and ancient spiritual centre of Ireland, though at times the Hill of Tara was also regarded in a similar manner.

The Hill of Uisneach interestingly is the nearest of these locations to the location calculated by the OSI .In fact the location identified by the OSI in 2022 in Castletown Geoghegan is approximately 5 kilometres south east in a direct line from the Hill of Uisneach.