Category Archives: Historic Ruins

Of a Very Superior Character


‘The monastery of Rahan…was founded by St Carthach or St Mochuda about the year 580. A king of Cornwall, named Constantine, abandoned his throne in 588, and became a monk there, whence it would seem the name Constantine became a favourite one with the family of Molloy, who were princes of Fercall, the district around Rahan. Under St Carthach, Rahan marvellously prospered, so that 867 monks were said to have been gathered under his rule at one time, and his followers formed one of the four great orders into which the Irish monasteries were divided…The monastery of Durrow, however, became jealous of the success of Rahan, and so in 636 roused King Blaethmac to expel Carthach, who took refuge in Lismore, where he founded the see but died the next year.’
From The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Part III, Third Quarter, 1896.





‘The ancient Irish church at Rahan – repaired for Protestant worship – has a remarkable round window, measuring about seven feet six inches in the external diameter of the circle, and it is placed about twenty-two feet from the level of the ground. It formerly lighted a chamber placed between the chancel and the stone roof. It has a circle of bead ornaments and chevron carving within the outer band-line. The ornamental sculpture is in low relief are inciso or hollow. The stone and masonry of this church are of a very superior character.’
From Lives of the Irish Saints Vol.X, by the Rev. John O’Hanlon, (Dublin, 1905)






‘The Abbey of Rahin [is] partly restored as a parish ch. It was founded in the 6th century by St Carthach or Mochuda, afterwards Bp. of Lismore, and is remarkable for its archaeological details. The visitor should notice the chancel archway, which consists of 3 rectangular piers on each side, rounded at their angles into semi-columns, and adorned with capitals elaborately sculptured with human heads. The original E. window is gone, but lighting a chamber between the chancel and the roof is a remarkably beautiful round window with ornaments in low relief. The antiquary should compare the decorations of the capitals with those at Timahoe. There are also ruins of 2 other chs., one of them containing a doorway with inclined jambs (indicative of early Irish architecture) and an arch adorned with the characteristic moulding so like Norman.’
From A Handbook for Travellers in Ireland by John Murray (London, 1866)

Of Small Extent but Very Strong


‘Castle of Doe – or MacSwine’s Castle, is situated on Cannon-point, a peninsula but little broader than its extent, on the bay of Ards, to the demesne of which it appears in various handsome views. It was built by a lady of the name of Quin, who afterwards married one of the Mc’Swine family, a couple of years before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it was since then fortified with a strong bawn by the grandfather of the present Mr. Mc’Swine of Dunfanaghy; it was only of small extent, but very strong, and surrounded by a deep fosse, which admitted the sea-water on the landside.’
From Statistical Survey of the County of Donegal by Dr James McParlan (1802)





‘The MacSwines held Doe Castle (Dhuv or Black Castle) for ages. It is a lofty round tower, surrounded by high walls, on the northern coast of Donegal, at the entrance of a small bay or estuary. It is in perfect preservation, and is inhabited to the present moment. It contains several good rooms, especially a banqueting-hall, and the view from the top is grand and extensive. Up to the reign of Elizabeth, it was held by the MacSwines. After the rebellion of Sir Cahir [O’Doherty, killed at the Battle of Kilmacrennan, 1608], it came into the hands of captain Harte, or Culmore, and is at the present date the property of lieutenant Harte, R.N., the lineal descendant of the governor of Culmore.
The Hartes retain the property they got to the great extent at Sir Cahir’s death. The present head of the family, lieutenant Harte, resides at Kilderry, near Culmore, and is considered to be worth from £1,500 to £2,000 per annum. His grandfather, General Harte, of the Indian service, lived at Doe Castle and, of course, extraordinary stories of the nabob are circulated freely in the neighbourhood. He was at the taking of Seringapatam, and, if we can credit rumour, made a very considerable “loot” thereat.’
From The Fate and Fortune of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O’Donel, Earl of Tyrconnel, by the Rev. C.P. Meehan (1868)





‘The Hartes of Culmore and Kilderry were the owners of Doe Castle and the landed property attached up to the year 1866 when it was purchased by Mr. Stewart of Ards. General Harte, of the Indian Service, who was present at the battle of Seringapatam and at the capture of Tipoo Sahib, lived at Doe Castle for many years in true Oriental magnificence. He met with an accident by falling down the steep staircase leading to the tower, from which death ensued afterwards. Captain Harte, his son, who succeeded him, was famous for his hospitality and very popular with the people. Tippp Sahib’s body-servant, a Hindoo, was made prisoner by the General, brought to Ireland and died at Doe Castle. He slept at night at the General’s bedroom door, dressed in oriental costume, and fully armed. The Hindoo’s health started to decline after his master’s death, to whom he was devotedly attached, and in a few years he died broken-hearted. The cannon captured at Seringapatam are yet to be seen on a green lawn sloping downwards to the sea from the outward walls of the castle…’
From Scenery and Antiquities of North-West Donegal by William Harkin (1893) 

 

A Piece of Stage Scenery


Around 1783 Peter Daly, then a young man of 20, left home to seek his fortune. Daly was a younger son whose father, Darby Daly, had died some years earlier leaving the family property, Dalysgrove to his eldest-born, Francis. The Dalys could trace their ancestry in this part of the country back to Dermot O’Daly of Killimor, whose five sons were the forebears of many prominent East Galway landowners thereafter, not least the Dalys of Dunsandle (see Dun and Dusted « The Irish Aesthete). Unlike their cousins, however, the Dalys of Dalysgrove remained Roman Catholic while managing to hold onto their estate. In adulthood, Peter Daly might have followed the example of other young adventurers and moved to France, or Austria or Italy, or even North America, then just achieving independence. Instead, he travelled to Jamaica where he became the owner of several coffee plantations, the crops of which were exported to England. In 1806, he married Bridget Louisa MacEvoy, daughter of Christopher MacEvoy, another substantial plantation owner in the West Indies; the couple would have three sons. Interestingly, Peter Daly named his Jamaican estate Daly’s Grove, after the family property back in Ireland. Eventually, in the late 1820s, he had made sufficient money in the Caribbean that he was able to buy the original Dalysgrove in County Galway from his elder brother Francis. By this time, he had also acquired another property in the same part of the world, Corbally, which had previously been owned by a branch of the Blake family.





The Blakes were one of the Tribes of Galway, the 14 families who dominated trade in that city during the MIddle Ages. Like many of the other Tribes, they began to buy land in the surrounding counties and according to an account of the family records published in 1905, Peter Blake, third son of Sir Richard Blake of Ardfry, County Galway (for more on this house, see All Washed Up « The Irish Aesthete), was in December 1679 granted the castle and lands of Corbally by patent. His descendants remained living there until 1829 when the property was sold to Peter Daly. (Incidentally, Sir Henry Blake, the 19th century British colonial administrator who was successively Governor of the Bahamas, Newfoundland, Jamaica, Hong Kong and Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – was the grandson of Peter Blake who sold the estate to Daly). Occupying a prominent site on high ground, Corbally began as a late-mediaeval tower house but c.1780 the Blakes built a large classical house in front of this. An old photograph shows that the building’s facade was of three storeys over basement and of seven bays, the centre bay in a pedimented breakfront with a typical tripartite doorcase on the groundfloor approached by a short flight of stone steps and an oculus within the pediment. Directly below this, and between the two third-floor windows was a large panel displaying a coat of arms. Following Peter Daly’s acquisition of the property, the house’s name was changed to Castle Daly and significant changes were made to the garden front, where the old tower house was given a twin to create a pair of projecting wings with a forecourt between them. The roofline of both towers was ornamented with limestone crenellations supported on corbels. While these helped to convey an impression of antiquity, the two bays between them retained the 18th century Venetian tripartite doorcase with a Diocletian window directly above, although the roofline was again given crenellations. Similar work was carried out at Dalysgrove after it too had been acquired by Peter Daly. 





As mentioned, thanks to the fortune he had made in Jamaica, Peter Daly was able to buy both the Corbally (thereafter Castle Daly) and Dalysgrove estates, and return to live in Ireland where he carried out significant alterations to both properties. It helped that in November 1835, he was awarded £2,318, 11 shillings and six pence by the British government. Why so? Because this sum was compensation for the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean colonies. Peter Daly had hitherto had 113 slaves working for him on his Jamaican plantation and, following the Slave Abolition Act which came into effect in 1834, owners were entitled to seek recompense from the government for loss of revenue. Daly was among 170 people in Ireland who so benefitted under the terms of the act (for more on this, see Dirty Money « The Irish Aesthete). Peter Daly had two sons who survived to adulthood, and following his death in 1846 the elder, James, inherited Castle Daly while the younger, Peter Paul was left Dalysgrove; curiously both men died in the same year, 1881. While the Castle Daly estate ran to 3,495 acres of land, that at Dalysgrove had just 500. However, by 1906, presumably following sales under the terms of the various Land Acts, Castle Daly was surrounded by just 100 acres of untenanted demesne. The last of the family to own this property was Dermot Joseph Daly who in July 1945 sold Castle Daly. Two months later, an advertisement announced that various items removed from the house – shutters, windows, chimneypieces, wooden flooring, staircases – were being offered for sale in convenient lots. The house built by the Blakes was later demolished but for unknown reasons the garden front, as composed by Peter Daly, was left standing, a strange spectacle on the horizon looking, as Mark Bence-Jones noted, ‘like a folly, or a piece of stage scenery.’ Down in the village below and in a prominent position in front of St Teresa’s Catholic church (and formerly facing the entrance gates to the estate) can be seen the Daly Mausoleum which dates from 1860. 

Offering Harbour Views



There appears to be little information about the origins or history of Harbourhill Lodge which, as its name implies, overlooks the little harbour at Newquay, County Clare. Of three bays and two storeys over raised basement, this is one of a number of such properties constructed along the coast in the late 18th/early 19th centuries as occasional homes for landowners whose main estates were elsewhere. It appears on the first Ordnance Survey map (published 1842) and was subsequently listed as being let to the Rev Michael J O’Fea by John Bindon Scott, whose family owned the Cahercon estate at the other end of the county. Ruined in the aftermath of the Great Famine, the Scotts sold up and left Ireland, and it is known that at the beginning of the last century Harbourhill Lodge had become a barracks for the Royal Irish Constabulary. Presumably dereliction began after the War of Independence, and now a hollow shell stands overlooking the harbour at Newquay.


Commodious and Comfortable



‘As soon as I got hither, I ran to my building, and had the pleasure to find every thing very well…The Scaffolding is all down, and the House almost pointed, and It’s figure is vastly more beautiful than I expected it would be. Conceited people may censure its plainness. But I don’t wish it any further ornament than it has. As far as I can judge, the inside will be very commodious, and comfortable. Were it finish’d and season’d, I could wish you here this minute. But I hope we may yet pass some pleasant days together in it.’ Edward Synge, Bishop of Elphin, writing to his daughter Alicia in May 1747 about the new episcopal palace he was then building in Elphin, County Roscommon. Believed to have been designed by Dublin architect Michael Wills, the house was a typical example of Irish Palladianism, with a three-storey, three-bay block flanked by quadrants leading to two-storey wings. The main building survived until 1911 when destroyed by fire and was subsequently demolished, leaving a gap in the centre of the composition. Today the north wing stands a ruin behind a bungalow while the south wing has been restored as a residence. To the left of this are the remains of a Gothick gatelodge and its former gates, presumably the original entrance to the property. 


Empty Aisle, Deserted Chancel


Lone and weary as I wander’d by the bleak shore of the sea,
Meditating and reflecting on the world’s hard destiny,
Forth the moon and stars ‘gan glimmer, in the quiet tide beneath,
For on slumbering spring and blossom breathed not out of heaven a breath.

On I went in sad dejection, careless where my footsteps bore,
Till a ruined church before me opened wide its ancient door,
Till I stood before the portals, where of old were wont to be,
For the blind, the halt, and leper, alms and hospitality.

Still the ancient seat was standing, built against the buttress grey,
Where the clergy used to welcome weary trav’llers on their way;
There I sat me down in sadness, ‘neath my cheek I placed my hand,
Till the tears fell hot and briny down upon the grassy land.





There, I said in woful sorrow, weeping bitterly the while,
Was a time when joy and gladness reigned within this ruined pile;
Was a time when bells were tinkling, clergy preaching peace abroad,
Psalms a-singing, music ringing praises to the mighty God.

Empty aisle, deserted chancel, tower tottering to your fall,
Many a storm since then has beaten on the grey head of your wall!
Many a bitter storm and tempest has your roof-tree turned away,
Since you first were formed a temple to the Lord of night and day.

Holy house of ivied gables, that were once the country’s boast,
Houseless now in weary wandering are you scattered, saintly host;
Lone you are to-day, and dismal,— joyful psalms no more are heard,
Where, within your choir, her vesper screeches the cat-headed bird.

Ivy from your eaves is growing, nettles round your green hearth-stone,
Foxes howl, where, in your corners, dropping waters make their moan.
Where the lark to early matins used your clergy forth to call,
There, alas! no tongue is stirring, save the daw’s upon the wall.





Refectory cold and empty, dormitory bleak and bare,
Where are now your pious uses, simple bed and frugal fare?
Gone your abbot, rule and order, broken down your altar stones;
Nought see I beneath your shelter, save a heap of clayey bones.

O! the hardship, O! the hatred, tyranny, and cruel war,
Persecution and oppression, that have left you as you are!
I myself once also prosper’d; — mine is, too, an alter’d plight;
Trouble, care, and age have left me good for nought but grief to-night.

Gone my motion and my vigour — gone the use of eye and ear,
At my feet lie friends and children, powerless and corrupting here;
Woe is written on my visage, in a nut my heart could lie —
Death’s deliverance were welcome — Father, let the old man die.


Translation by Sir Samuel Ferguson of the Irish poem Machtnamh an Duine Dhoilghíosaigh (‘The Melancholy Mortal’s Reflections’) or, Caoineadh ar Mhainistir Thigh Molaige (‘Lament Over the Monastery House of Molaga’) by Seághan Ó CoileáinPictures of the 15th century Franciscan friary known as Moor Abbey, County Tipperary. 

 

Held Hostage



Gortnaclea Castle, County Laois is a 16th century tower house originally built by the Mac Giolla Phádraig family on a site overlooking the Gully river. It is famous for having been the place where in April 1600 Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, a long-time ally of the English crown but by then aged almost 70, was held hostage by Owny MacRory O’More. At the end of the month, O’More sent his demands to the government, which included the removal of all English garrisons from that part of the country. This stipulation – and sundry others – were not met but the earl, by then in poor health, was eventually released after the payment of £3,000 (and lived for another 16 years). Of five storeys, Gortnaclea is a typical tower house of the period but unfortunately its easterly entrance front has long since collapsed, bringing down the spiral staircase which would have been immediately inside the main door; the graceful curving wall of the staircase can be seen on the north-east corner.


Into the Woods


In the mid-17th century, one Peter Carey from Devon came to Ireland and settled in County Cork where he acquired Ballymacpatrick, lying a few miles east of Fermoy and formerly part of the Condon estate on the river Blackwater. Generations of his descendants remained living in this place, the name of which was duly changed to Careysville: an early 19th century house built by the Careys survives here, although it is now owned by the Cavendish family. In the second half of the 18th century, Richard Carey, a younger son, became a Church of Ireland clergyman, as so often was the case with offspring not expected to inherit property. Although a prebendary of Donoughmore and Kiltegan in the diocese of Lismore, the Rev Carey lived in Clonmel, County Tipperary where he was associated with the local Free School. Both he and his son, Langer Carey, also a clergyman, lived a short distance south of Clonmel, just across the border into County Waterford, in a spot called Glenabbey.





Located on a spot overlooking the Glenary river, Glenabbey is supposed to derive its name from a mediaeval religious settlement, a grange established here by the Cistercian abbey of Inishlounaght not far from Clonmel. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century, the lands of Inishlounaght – presumably including those at Glenabbey – passed by sale to Sir Edward Gough, his ownership confirmed in 1591 by the English crown. However, his grandson Patrick forfeited the property in 1641 and thereafter ownership of Glenabbey seems unknown until it became home to the Careys at the start of the 19th century.  





Although called Glenabbey House on the original 1840 Ordnance Survey Map, the remains here are now known as Carey’s Castle. Today surrounded by woodland owned by Coillte, Ireland’s forestry body, the property has a somewhat eccentric appearance, composed of a series of interlinking structures that incorporate a variety of architectural styles and themes. Evidently the intention was to suggest an ancient lineage, as indicated by the rather bizarre incorporation of a three-storey capped round tower into the largest part of the building. In fact, even this section is not especially substantial and contains no fireplaces (it may be that another part of the building immediately behind and now lost held some comfortable rooms). Carey’s Castle, while charming to look at, must have been rather unsatisfactory as a family residence, being more like a sequence of follies. To the immediate north of this main building, for example, is another that looks as though intended to serve as a chapel, except the arched windows are filled with rubble stones (and no evidence of openings ever existing on the other side of the same wall). In any case, it does not seem to have been used as a home for very long. The Rev Langer Carey died at the early age of 41 in 1830 and some years later his surviving family sold the property. The new owner is given as Lieutenant-Colonel Nuttall Greene, who already owned Kilmanahan Castle (see Shrouded in Mystery « The Irish Aesthete). Having greatly over-extended himself, in the aftermath of the Great Famine, Greene’s heir was forced to sell the family’s properties through the Encumbered Estates Court. After which Carey’s Castle was abandoned, and so fell into its present condition. 

A Picturesque Feature in the Landscape


Seemingly there are some 100 places around the world called Newcastle, six of them located in Ireland (one of these, in County Meath, is a couple of miles away from the more substantial settlement of Oldcastle). Newcastle, County Tipperary is one of the smaller holders of the name, being a small village seemingly of little note. But it contains two substantial mediaeval ruins, one being a large 12th/13th century church and the other the castle from which Newcastle takes its name. 




The ‘new’ castle in County Tipperary presumably replaced an older one, but there does not appear to be any information about the latter. What remains can be seen close to the banks of the river Suir, the navigable possibilities of which was one reason for the choice of this site. The castle is believed to have been built for the Prendergast family, the first of whom Maurice de Prendergast, was among the Cambro-Norman knights who accompanied Richard de Clare (otherwise known as Strongbow) to Ireland and then settled here.  Around 1230 his grandson, William de Prendergast exchanged lands he had inherited in what is now County Limerick with Jeffrey de Marisco for those in this part of Tipperary. There may already have been some kind of castle already erected but the ruins seen today were certainly enhanced and enlarged by the Prendergasts who remained in occupation until the mid-17th century. In the aftermath of the Confederate Wars, Edmond Prendergast’s estates were taken from him by the Cromwellian government and the link with Newcastle broken. Edmond Prendergast’s grandson, Sir Thomas Prendergast, who grew up in poverty, led an extraordinarily adventurous life. Having fought in the service of James II, he allied himself to William III after the Treaty of Limerick. A Roman Catholic, he was involved in a Jacobite plot to kill the king, but then switched sides and provided evidence that helped to convict many of his former fellow-plotters. He then seems to have conformed to the Established Church and was rewarded with lands around Gort,  County Galway that provided an annual income of £500. Created a baronet in 1699, he acted as MP for Monaghan borough, 1703-09 while also serving in the army, rising to the rank of brigadier-general in February 1709. However, the following September he was killed at the Battle of Malplaquet.




The castle at Newcastle consists of a number of buildings enclosed within what remains of a bawn wall; among the more notable extant structures is a large vaulted hall and a circular tower, both relatively intact although much of the rest of the property is in poor condition. Quite when the castle was abandoned is unclear. One suggestion is that it was badly damaged in the late 1640s/early 1650s at a time when the Prendergasts were displaced. But the ruin of so many buildings in Ireland is attributed to Cromwellian forces that it is hard to know whether or not such was the case in this instance. Whatever the truth, the lands on which it stands were eventually granted to the Perry family, whose main residence from the early 18th century onwards was some ten miles north at Woodrooff, County Tipperary. In 1837 Samuel Lewis wrote that the old castle ‘forms a very picturesque feature in the landscape.’ Such remains the case today. 

Piercing the Sky



Piercing the sky, a slender tower in the graveyard of Brooklodge, County Cork. A square base with octagonal belfrey above, this is all that remains of a church erected here in the mid-19th century, on the site of an older structure (described as being in ruins as early as 1615): the main body of the building was demolished in 1923. In one corner of the surrounding graveyard is a large rectangular mausoleum, now almost enveloped in vegetation, erected by the Browne family who lived not far away at Riverstown House.