Kellagh - The Earse term for a wooden anchor with a stone in it, but in later times is applied to any grapnel or small anchor.


Assume Earse is intended to be Erse i.e. Irish Gaelic. "kellagh", with a hard gh sounds rather like the Irish word "cloch" i.e. a stone or rock.

Scottish gaelic has "clach".

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, this seems a more plausible derivation than many of the others to be found on line. Not that plausibility is a reliable pilot in etymology!

Regards