Tag Archives: County Donegal

A Place of Pilgrimage



June 23rd 1752: ‘This country being entirely unknown I have been the more particular in relation to it, for my own satisfaction. From the Ferry I went westward along the Strand, and passed under an old Church called Kilkenny, a chapel of Ease to Enniskeel, a mile farther I came to a village called Balyaristan: and having a letter to Mr. Stewart the Minister of Inniskeel I came in two miles to his house, the first half on the strand and the remainder within the sand banks ; opposite to it is a small Island called Keel or Inniskeel (Island Bed) in which are two churches, about one the Protestants bury, and at the other the Papists; At low water they ride over to it.’
From Richard Pococke’s Tour of Ireland in 1752, edited by George T. Stokes (Dublin, 1891)




No longer to be seen on Inishkeel or indeed in this part of the world: St Conall’s Bell and Shrine. Made of iron, the original plain hand bell, used to summon the local people to services, likely dates from the 7th or 8th century. It is indicative of the growing fame of St Conall that several hundred years later, this simple device was decorated with a bronze mount and then, in the 15th century, an elaborate shrine of bronze and silver parcel-gilt, with silver plates, rock crystal studs and a chain, was made to house the implement. Both the bell and its shrine were kept for many centuries by the local O’Breslin family, supposedly descendants of the saint’s family, and would be exhibited annually during celebrations of his feast day (May 22nd) when pilgrims gathered on Inishkeel. Writing for the Ordnance Survey in 1835, described how ‘This chain O’Breslin threw around his neck, and from it the bell hung down his breast, exhibiting to the enthusiastic pilgrims the glittering gems and the symbol of the bloody sacrifice.’ At some date around this time, the bell and shrine were purchased by Major James Nesbitt, a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Donegal, who lived a little further south in a house called Woodhill. The items then passed through a couple of hands before being bought by the English antiquarian and collector Augustus Wollaston Franks who in 1889 presented them to the British Museum where he served as Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities. Bell and shrine remain in the museum’s collection to the present day, although they were loaned for exhibition in the Donegal County Museum ten years ago.
Inishkeel is a little island off the coast of south-west County Donegal, only accessible on foot when the tide is sufficiently low. Here, in the late 6th century, Saint Conall Cael, about whom almost nothing is known, founded a monastic settlement which, like so many others, in due course became a renowned place of pilgrimage. Remains of two small churches, one dedicated to St Conall, the other to the Virgin, both dating from the 13th century and later, can be seen here. They have each undergone some restoration work (the east end of the St Conall’s church has evidently been reconstructed, since numbers can be seen on many of its stones). There are also several cross slabs still standing, including two on which carved decorations of interlaced design may still be seen: one of them is believed to have been the shaft of a high cross from the 11th/12th century. When the buildings here fell out of use is unclear, but the island continued to be populated into the 19th century: the 1841 census shows there were 16 people living on Inishkeel. Today, while one roofed house still stands, it is otherwise uninhabited. Looking at the scant remains, it is difficult to believe that this was once the centre of a thriving monastic community and a place to which pilgrims flocked. 




No longer to be found on Inishkeel or indeed in this part of the world: St Conall’s Bell and Shrine. Made of iron, the original plain hand bell, used to summon the local people to services, likely dates from the 7th or 8th century. It is indicative of the growing fame of St Conall that several hundred years later, this simple device was decorated with a bronze mount and then, in the 15th century, an elaborate shrine of bronze and silver parcel-gilt, with silver plates, rock crystal studs and a chain, was made to house the implement. Both the bell and its shrine were kept for many centuries by the local O’Breslin family, supposedly descendants of the saint’s family, and would be exhibited annually during celebrations of his feast day (May 22nd) when pilgrims gathered on Inishkeel. Writing for the Ordnance Survey in 1835, described how ‘This chain O’Breslin threw around his neck, and from it the bell hung down his breast, exhibiting to the enthusiastic pilgrims the glittering gems and the symbol of the bloody sacrifice.’ At some date around this time, the bell and shrine were purchased by Major James Nesbitt, a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Donegal, who lived a little further south in a house called Woodhill. The items then passed through a couple of hands before being bought by the English antiquarian and collector Augustus Wollaston Franks who in 1889 presented them to the British Museum where he served as Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities. Bell and shrine remain in the museum’s collection to the present day, although they were loaned for exhibition in the Donegal County Museum ten years ago. 



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Early Georgian at its Finest



Justly described by Alistair Rowan as the ‘finest early Georgian church in north west Ulster’, this is St John’s, Clondehorky, County Donegal. Dating from 1752, its design has been attributed to Michael Priestley, an architect who worked in the area during this period: it may have been commissioned by the Wrays who then owned the nearby Ards estate (their successors there, the Stewart family, had a vault by the church). Unlike many other Church of Ireland places of worship, this one underwent little alteration in the 19th century, aside from the addition of a small vestry on the north side in 1853. Otherwise, it looks much as it did when first erected, with four Gibbsian segment-headed windows on the south side and Venetian windows at the west and east end, the latter being particularly substantial and having rusticated blocks take the place of pilasters.



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A History of Restoration


Thought to have been born in the Donegal region of Ulster c.624, Adomnán, or Eunan as he is more widely known, was one of the many early Irish Christian monks who achieved widespread fame and ultimately canonisation.  When young, he may have spent some time at Durrow Abbey, County Offaly (see On the Plain of Oaks « The Irish Aesthete) which had been founded during the previous century by Saint Columba, to whom he was related. This would also explain why eventually he moved to the island of Iona, off the Scottish coast, where Columba had established another great monastery in 563, and where Eunan would become ninth abbot in 679. Renowned for his scholarship, between 697-700 he wrote the work for which he is best remembered, the Vita Columbae (or Life of St Columba). He died in 704.





St Eunan is believed to have been born in or close to the town of Raphoe, County Donegal where he established a monastery. Nothing of this survives, the earliest remains being two fragments of carved sculptural stonework probably once part of a door lintel. In the 12th century, Raphoe was established as a Diocesan See, and surviving evidence of the cathedral then erected can be found in the south-east section of the chancel, including a triple sedilia and a piscina bowl. However, St Eunan’s suffered greatly during the upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, and therefore underwent extensive restorations and alterations. The first of these began around 1605 when the Scottish-born clergyman George Montgomery, who had previously served as chaplain to James I, was appointed by the king not just Bishop of Raphoe, but simultaneously Bishop of Clogher and Derry (he was translated to the See of Meath alone in 1610). Montgomery’s successor Andrew Knox, another Scotsman, served as Bishop of Raphoe until his death in 1633, but also as Bishop of the Isles in his native country until 1619 (when he resigned so that his eldest son Thomas Knox could take over the diocese). On Knox’s arrival in Raphoe, the cathedral was described as ‘ruinated and decayed’ and therefore substantial restoration was undertaken during his episcopacy: a door lintel in the south porch is an inscription: AN. KNOX II EP I. CVRA. With its scrolled volutes, this porch (see final picture) is of interest because of its Italianate Baroque design, thought to date from the late 17th or very early 18th century, a rare surviving example from that period. Meanwhile, it may be that further work was undertaken on the building during the episcopacy of  yet another Scotsman, John Leslie (1633-1661), the ‘fighting bishop’ during whose time a new palace was built on an adjacent rise (see From Bishops to Bullocks « The Irish Aesthete). Nevertheless, the greater part of the cathedral as seen today dates from the 1730s, during the long episcopacy of Nicholas Forster, who served as bishop of the diocese from 1716 to 1743 and therefore had ample time to see to the building and improve its condition, helped in this enterprise thanks to funds left by one of his predecessors, John Pooley (died 1712). Visitors enter St Eunan’s through a porch below the west tower built by the bishop in 1738 but the transepts also added by Forster would be demolished in the late 19th century as part of the next restoration project. Incidentally, during his episcopacy, Forster also commissioned the handsome Volt House (now a heritage centre), which stands on Raphoe’s Diamond not far from the cathedral and was originally intended to house four widows of Church of Ireland clergymen.





Despite all the attention paid to St Eunan’s in the early 18th century, once more it suffered neglect, so much so that in 1876, the diocesan correspondent to the Ecclesiastical Gazette judged the place to be ‘the most neglected church in the diocese’. Between 1888-82 an extensive programme of restoration was undertaken by architect Sir Thomas Drew to return the cathedral’s ‘mediaeval’ character. Among other work done, the transepts, pews, and a gallery all dating from Forster’s time were removed. Much of what can be seen inside the building – the chancel arch, the east gable windows, the encaustic tiled floor, the timber panelling behind the altar and many of the present window openings all date from Drew’s intervention. Some of the stained glass windows in the chancel and nave were designed by members of  the An Túr Gloine studio. The west porch’s timber doors featuring Celtic motifs, symbols of the four evangelists and a border inscription were carved by a Mrs McQuaid, wife of a former rector, in 1907 in memory of her father Dean Joseph Potter who had died two years earlier. A few years ago, the cathedral underwent its most recent series of renovations, with €450,000 spent on a new roof and the repair of defective stonework, as well as the installation of interior lighting and a certain amount of redecoration. St Eunan’s has a long history of restoration, but, all being well, another such programme ought not to be required for a long time to come. 

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The House on the Hill



Salthill is well-named as it sits on high ground overlooking the harbour at Mountcharles, County Donegal. Of two storeys over raised basement and five bays, the house has a central pedimented breakfront with Diocletian window. The building is thought to date from the 1770s and may have been designed by Dublin-based architect Thomas Ivory, commissioned by the Conyngham family who owned a large estate in this part of the country, since for many years it served as a residence for their agent. More recently the present owners of the property have created extensive gardens to the rear of the house.



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The Place of Pleasant Aspect



Popular belief proposes that Balleighan Abbey, County Donegal was founded close to the eastern shore of Lough Swilly by Hugh Dubh O’Donnell at the beginning of the 16th century. In fact the building is older than that and while it may have been associated with the O’Donnells, the place was a church of the Third Order of the Franciscans who had a friary directly opposite on the lough’s western side. The location’s name derives from the Irish The name is derived the Irish ‘Baile-aighidh-chaoin’, meaning the place of pleasant aspect, although this was hard to appreciate when the Irish Aesthete visited on a dank, grey afternoon. With little surviving decoration, the roofless church retains a singularly fine 15th century window with sinuous tracery, today mostly appreciated by cattle grazing in the surrounding fields. 



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Inexplicable



Extraordinary to see that this gate lodge at Clonleigh, County Donegal has been left to fall into dereliction. Set at an oblique angle to the road, it formerly marked the entrance to an estate and since-demolished house owned by a branch of the Knox family. Single storey with an attic storey lit by shamrock motif windows, the building is faced in uncoursed rubble with dressed stone employed around the doors and windows. Thought to date from the mid-19th century, the lodge may have been designed by Welland and Gillespie, architects for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who in 1863 were carrying out extensive works at the Church of Ireland church and parish hall in nearby Lifford: this would explain its decidedly church-like appearance. Harder to explain is why such a fine little house should stand unoccupied and threatened with ruin.



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For what Purpose?



Located on Patrick’s Hill and above a stone outcrop in the village of Dunfanaghy, County Donegal, this crenellated little tower’s origins are unclear. While it does not appear on the original Ordnance Survey map of the late 1830s, it is shown on Griffith’s Valuation map a couple of decades later. Was it constructed as a folly or a lookout post with views across the local Sheephaven Bay? And who commissioned it? Set on a plinth and of rubble stone, the structure has a pointed arch opening on the west side and square-headed window opening to the north, with an infilled opening on the south face. It holds one small room: what can its purpose have been?

Period Piece


Back in 2010, while reviewing a biography of Derek Hill, the Irish Aesthete managed to affront a number of people by suggesting the artist’s reputation was less substantial than either he or his admirers might have wished. Indeed, some 24 years after his death, the question is likely to be asked in some circles: Derek who? Born in Southampton in 1916, after leaving school in 1933 Hill originally studied theatre design in Munich, before travelling eastwards through Russia, eventually visiting China and Japan. Returning to England, he took a job as costume designer at Sadlers Wells Theatre but then, encouraged by the couturier Edward Molyneux, he took up painting in a serious fashion. During the Second World War, he worked on a farm as a conscientious objector but still found time to paint and in 1943 had a one-man exhibition in London. In the aftermath of war, he spent a great deal of time in Italy, often staying with art historian Bernard Berenson at his villa I Tatti outside Florence. And he continued to paint, specialising in the genres of landscape and portraiture. Hill demonstrated a distinct aptitude for the former, especially when working on a small scale – in larger pictures he seemed to lose his way – and when presented with the kind of rugged prospect found in the north-west of Ireland, where he spent more and more time. The influence of Corot was always evident in this work, aligned with the beneficial impact of Cezanne. His portraits are more problematic, veering between acute character study and superficial likeness. Some of the finest are little more than preparatory studies; he could overwork a portrait and thereby mislay the sitter’s personality. But in their enormous number these pictures offer an insight into the scope of his social life, which took in everyone from Irish farmers to English grandees. That he had a weakness for aristocracy and royalty cannot be denied (he loved to go on painting holidays with Prince – now King – Charles); it was another aspect of his essentially old-fashioned persona. There is a well-known anecdote of Hill once being decried as a snob, to which he supposedly responded: “How amazing. I was only talking with the Queen Mother a few days ago, and she said just the same thing.” There were two drawbacks to his maintaining a busy social life, flitting from one grand house to the next: it made him appear trivial in the eyes of many people and it took him away from his work. Although he spent periods entirely focused on his work, and quoted Degas’ remark that “if the artist wishes to be serious . . . he must once more sink himself into solitude”, he was unable to apply this policy with sufficient rigour.






Derek Hill first came to Ireland in the late 1940s, invited here by the wealthy  Philadelphia-born socialite and art collector Henry McIllhenny who in 1938 had bought Glenveagh Castle, County Donegal, an estate some 15 miles south-west of where his forebears had lived until emigrating to the United States the previous century; at the time of their meeting, McIllhenny was working as Resident Art Historian at the American Academy in Rome. The two men thereafter remained lifelong ‘frenemies’ (to use a wonderful neologism) and in due course also neighbours because in 1953 Hill bought an old rectory, St Columb’s, just a few miles south of Glenveagh. Five years later, he visited Tory, a small island off the north coast of Donegal, where he rented a hut and spent time each summer painting for himself and also encouraging members of the local fishing community to do likewise, thereby creating a school of naïve painting, known as the Tory Island Painters, the best-known of whom was James Dixon. In 1982 Hill donated St Columb’s and its contents to the Irish State (McIllhenny had done likewise with Glenveagh Castle and gardens three years earlier) and thereafter lived in a small cottage nearby although he spent more time than hitherto in England. He died in London in 2000. 






St Columb’s dates from 1828 when, according to Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) it was constructed thanks to a gift of £400 and a loan of £380 from the Board of First Fruits; the surrounding glebe land ran to 25 acres. It remained in use as a Church of Ireland rectory until the death of the second resident clergyman, the Rev Henry Maturin in 1880, after which the building was leased to tenants before being sold. In 1898 it opened as St Columb’s Hotel, and continued to be used for this purpose until being bought by Derek Hill in 1953, the majority of guests over the intervening period coming to this part of the country either for fishing or shooting. Of two storeys and three bays, the house retains much of its original appearance, although a large and elaborate cast-iron single storey veranda to the rear seemingly was brought here from somewhere else. Inside, it has a typical tripartite design, with reception rooms on either side of a narrow entrance hall, that to the right presumably serving as a small study since the staircase immediately behind takes up considerable space. The decoration throughout is as it was when St Columb’s was occupied by Derek Hill and displays a fondness for Victoriana and William Morris papers, for needlepoint cushions and Staffordshire figures. The house is now a period piece, preserved as though its former owner had just stepped out for air, and deservedly ought to be kept as such even if, rather like Hill’s paintings, this will not be to everyone’s taste. It is open to the public for tours during the summer months, while, the adjacent yard buildings have been converted into a gallery space which hosts temporary exhibitions each year.

For more information about the house and gallery, see Glebe House and Gallery | Explore a world-class collection of art (glebegallery.ie)

 

It’s Not Unusual



A not-unusual sight in Ireland: the former hotel on Main Street, Milford, County Donegal. Also not unusual: the fact that it has been left closed and falling into decay for many years. The property was put on the market some ten years ago but failed to find a buyer. Then in 2019 the owners applied to redevelop the site into a mixture of townhouses and apartments, with the front section renovated and the rear replaced. That didn’t come to pass, and in 2020 a local elected representative proposed Donegal County Council buy the place. This didn’t happen either, and last year a similar proposal was made, the response being that the authority was working on the (inevitable) draft plan for the town centre’s regeneration and that this document would be subject to further consultation. Some months ago, Milford was listed as one of 26 beneficiaries of a new national Town Centre First initiative. Meanwhile, the old hotel continues to deteriorate.


A Charter House



The former Charter School at Ray, County Donegal. In brief, Charter Schools (so-called because they were established by royal charter in 1733) were part of a scheme by the Church of Ireland episcopacy to set up a Protestant education system throughout the country: the idea was that boys would learn a useful trade and girls be trained in domestic skills (while also becoming loyal members of the Established Church). Run by The Incorporated Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland, the project never achieved great success and proved subject to much abuse (many children being treated as unpaid servants and farmhands, or worse) but more than 40 schools were constructed, such as this one which dates from 1740 and was intended to house 27 pupils. At the time, Nicholas Forster, Bishop of Raphoe provided £50 towards the cost of construction, as well as supplying the original furniture and providing for four debentures of £100 for the ‘maintaining of the children’. William Forward of nearby Castleforward (since demolished) donated a further £20 while one John Leslie bequeathed two acres of land in perpetuity to the school, and another ‘twenty acres for use for the period of three lives at £6 per annum.’ It became a boys’ only school by 1794 and boarding was phased out after 1810. The building thereafter served as a day school for Protestant pupils until 1895, when it became part of the National School system. This remained the case until 2001 when a new school building opened close by: the old charter school has since lain empty and falling into its present state of dereliction.