17th Century Dunlavin Headstones

A 17th century headstone in the old cemetery in Dunlavin village, Co. Wicklow. © Eugene Brennan

I visited the little park adjacent to the market house in Dunlavin on my Sunday cycle yesterday. I've cycled past it dozens of times over the last thirty years, but never actually went in. This was the location of a 17th-century church and graveyard, the graveyard now having been “recycled”, with the headstones stacked up against the back wall of the space. It’s a practice I’m not too fond of, and it's something that has occurred in several locations in Dublin—Cemeteries have been turned into parks, such as at the rear of St Mary’s Church (foundation stone laid in 1700) on Mary Street, and at St Kevin’s Church, Camden Row (behind the now-demolished Kevin Street College of Technology, my alma mater). It was a shock to discover on Street View that the college had gone, but it was an ugly building.
The cemetery in Dunlavin has a couple of old 17th-century headstones, something which isn’t commonplace, as the inscriptions on headstones older than the 18th century are normally eroded and illegible unless they’ve been sheltered from the elements.

Edit: Dunlavin local historian Chris Lawlor has kindly sent me a link to his thesis, The Establishment and Evolution of an Irish Village: The Case of Dunlavin, County Wicklow 1600 -1910, which includes some details about the cemetery on p. 44:

Map courtesy Tailte Éireann.

Another 17th century headstone in Dunlavin old cemetery. © Eugene Brennan 

The location of the cemetery in Dunlavin village. Image courtesy Tailte Éireann.

Chimney Stacks and Pots in Kilcullen

Chimney stacks, some topped with pots, on buildings along Kilcullen’s Upper Main Street. 

I've been reading the cover article from the April edition of The Bridge about the planned streetscape survey of Kilcullen's Upper Main Street. Zooming in on a c. 1900 image of the street, it appears that many of the chimney stacks were devoid of chimney pots—the same is true for Lower Main Street. A chimney pot serves several functions beyond mere aesthetics. It improves airflow by effectively raising the chimney's height without requiring the entire stack to be built taller. Since a chimney pot is narrower than the flue inside the stack (these chimney stacks were often wide and sometimes flue-less; in fact, children used to climb the stacks to sweep the chimneys), it creates a venturi effect, increasing airflow speed and improving suction.

Chimney pots became more common in the 18th century, with the peak of the fashion occurring in the 19th century.

Another feature of the chimney stacks is that many of them appear to have been constructed from brick, rather than rough stone. Over the intervening 130 years or so since the Lawrence Collection photo was taken, most of the stacks have been rendered with cement or lime mortar.

Images courtesy The National Library of Ireland.

Brick-constructed chimney stacks on buildings along Kilcullen's upper main street.

 

Lawrence Collection photo, c. 1900, of Kilcullen's Upper Main Street, 

 

Kilcullen Market House?

Excerpt from the c. 1837 6" first edition OSI map. Courtesy Tailte Éireann.

A building in the square, visible on the c. 1837 6" first edition map. By the time the 25" map was surveyed circa 1890, the structure had disappeared.

We'll probably never know what it was. I haven't found any records mentioning it. Possibly it was just a house that remained from a terrace of buildings that once stood along an earlier street line.

 

The building had disappeared by c. 1900.  Image courtesy Tailte Éireann.

 

Maps courtesy Tailte Éireann from their Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer

Chapel Lane, New Ross

Image © Google Maps

Unlike the UK, where medieval houses are plentiful, we have relatively few pre-18th century houses in Ireland. There are castles dating back to medieval times, but there are few, if any, "ordinary" houses from the medieval period, as we would think of a house today. However, fortified tower houses exist. One probable reason is that there was no substantial middle class who could afford "proper" houses, built from timber or brick and most people were poor and lived in mud cabins. Or maybe the climate was hostile to the half-timbered houses like those that still exist in the UK (if they even existed here), and they decayed over the centuries. Most of the houses in the country date no further back than the Georgian era, which extended from 1714 to 1837. There are some examples of Queen Anne style architecture, such as the Red House in Youghal, Marsh's Library in Dublin and The Rubrics in Trinity College. These were built in the 1710s and have a distinctive "doll's house" appearance. A few Tudor/Elizabethan-era buildings exist, such as Rothe House in Kilkenny; Ormond Castle, a manor house in Carrick-on-Suir; and Myrtle Grove, Sir Walter Raleigh's home in Youghal. It's possible also that some houses were later "Georgianified", their older fabric concealed beneath a more modern facade. That's the case with some of the so-called "Dutch Billys" in Dublin, a pre-Georgian architectural style brought by the Huguenots, Protestants who fled persecution in France around the end of the 17th century. So to cut a long story short, I came across this some time ago. I think it was Colm Moriarty, a Wexford-based archaeologist who mentioned the street in New Ross in a social media post. The facades at the front are plain-rendered, but the back of the terrace of houses reveal the medieval origin of at least one of the buildings.

 

Google Maps link to Chapel Lane in New Ross here 

I Present to You for Heritage Week

Items found in the garden. © Eugene Brennan

.....my archaeological discoveries from the garden. Found while digging and doing construction work over the last few decades. Probably nineteenth century stuff. My theory is that rubble from the demolition of the Carlow Stables was spread out to level the ground during construction of the Nicholastown housing estate and that's where some of these fragments may have came from. During the era when a Bianconi coach service ran from Dublin to Cork, via Clonmel, horses were replaced at intervals along the way. The Carlow Stables in Kilcullen was one of the relay sites. The building was located just before the first turn into the estate, heading south. Some of the fragments I found were rough pottery with glaze, so these could be pre-nineteenth century and not manufactured in moulds or by machine. One piece has shallow grooves, possibly made by finger marks when the pottery was turned on a wheel. The top of a flagon came from outside the wall of my house, dug up when the council was fixing a broken water main almost 20 years ago. It's embossed with the text "Price Bristol". That grass bank outside the house probably contains a treasure trove of items, lost and discarded over the centuries since the road and the trail which probably preceded it has been in existence. I also found a piece of red brick, three feet under the ground, when I was digging a soakaway in the front lawn, but there were no houses in the area before the estate was built. The triangular tile-like objects were found when I was digging the foundations for my gate piers a few years ago. Not sure what they are.

Local History Diversion

Headstone in Tournant graveyard, Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow © Eugene Brennan

Off topic again. I ended up in Tournant Graveyard in Dunlavin yesterday on one of my bicycle ramblings, to take shelter from the heavy showers under some yew trees. I hadn't been there since the 90s, so the other reason I visited was to wander around the graveyard and read the inscriptions. This Doyle headstone has lots of detail about the family's history. Tournant Graveyard is the location where those who were executed in 1798 on the village green in Dunlavin were buried in a mass grave, now marked with a memorial headstone listing all the names.

"The Rocks", Kilcullen

The Rocks, Kilcullen. Public domain image via The Lawrence Photograph Collection, The National Library of Ireland.

https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000332645

Described as "The Rocks" in the Lawrence Photograph Collection from c. 1890, but I think we called them the caves. The area is pretty much obscured now behind bushes and trees, but from the vantage point of the farm trail, a glimpse can be seen of one of the overhanging sections through the vegetation. Maybe all the growth has something to do with the area being more fertile because of nutrient run-off in the river soaking up through the glacial sand and gravel deposits.

Do sand martins and kingfishers nest here? I think I could see holes in the sides when I took a walk on the trail last week.
See Brian Byrne's 2015 Kilcullen Diary article about the area, and how it has changed over the millennia and in living memory here:
https://kilcullenbridge.blogspot.com/.../the-changed-view...

Altar Headstone in New Abbey Cemetery

Altar type headstone in New Abbey cemetery, Kilcullen. © Eugene Brennan

Off topic again to local history. Does anyone know the history of this altar-style headstone in New Abbey Cemetery, with what I guess is neo-classical ornamentation (e.g. the urn as a finial on top and triangular pediments on top of the pillars)? I'm not sure whether "altar" is the correct term for the style and I've been doing reverse image searches on Google to see whether there's anything similar in existence, made by the same craftspeople. I seem to remember when I was around ten, the inscription was sort of legible. I can't remember ever having seen any reference to it by our local historians in The Bridge or elsewhere. Some rubbing with grass would probably bring up the contrast to allow the inscription to be read. If I ever see John Brady in the cemetery, I'll ask for permission. Climbing over the railings or wall might be necessary because the gate in the grave railings is stuck I think. Could it have been the altar from the parish church in the cemetery, repurposed as a gravestone for a member of the clergy? Meanwhile when the weather gets really dry during a drought, like now, a rectangular shape within which the grass dies appears nearby, on the opposite side of the path. I presume there's a flat slab-type tombstone just under the surface and the size and shape of the region of dead grass is similar to that of a grave slab lying some distance away. Sean Landers advised me not to start digging up the ground to see what's underneath (although I am curious!). I think it's sad to see centuries old graveyards where the grave markers belong to people long dead, with no living relatives. Maybe reading their names and thinking about them gives them a little recognition, before the inscriptions eventually erode into oblivion? Don't the people who are buried under that slab, if that's what it is, deserve to have their names revealed? Or is it better that they're forgotten?

Thatched Cottage Inventory for Kildare

Thatched cottage near Aglish, County Kilkenny. Image courtesy David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Off topic again, but this inventory on the Kildare County Council website is interesting. I spend a lot of time virtually travelling around the country and down country lanes (also on the bike in real life) and discovered another cottage locally since Google Street View imagery was updated last September and cul-de-sacs not imaged before were included (which some people mightn't be happy about because of security concerns and invasion of privacy). That makes four thatched cottages within a range of about five miles. Any more? Two were lost in the last 30 years or so. Ennis's cottage at Knockbounce when preliminary roadworks were done in advance of the Kilcullen Bypass and another near Yellow Bog on the road by Des O'Briens. Does anyone remember that?

Archiseek Website

A bit off-topic, but an interesting website, featuring architectural appraisals of buildings in Ireland, both extant and demolished. Also designs for buildings or features of buildings that never saw the light of day (e.g. The spire for St. Brigid's Church in Kilcullen).

Tomb Tools

Decorative panel from FitzEustace tomb in New Abbey Cemetery, Kicukken, Co. Kildare.

Tools depicted on the side panels that originally formed part of the FitzEustace tomb in New Abbey Cemetery: a claw hammer, nails, a ladder and is that a three-legged pot, or a shield? Maybe a vessel for melting lead in for making flashing for roofs? Or am I just biased and identifying them as such?

Edit: I did a reverse image look-up and it's possibly a collection of musical instruments (lyre and trumpets)
https://www.marcmaison.com/.../fireback-decorated-with...

Dutch Billies and Drains

Dutch Billy in the slums of Dublin. Photographer Robert French. Image courtesy The National Library of Ireland, Lawrence Photograph Collection.

Straying a bit again from the scope of this group into my other interest, architecture. Not that I know a huge amount about it, but as a child I always had a fascination with and appreciation of the design of buildings and structures new and old. The image below is one of several drawings of Kilcullen Bridge made over the last 250 years or so. It's from a set of four illustrations of Kildare held in the Manuscript & Archives Research Library of Trinity College Dublin, drawn in 1795 by Sir William Smith, an artist and captain in the Royal Engineers. You may have seen the illustration before, but the image in the TCD archive is a higher resolution version. What's interesting is the terrace of buildings with street-facing gables and tall chimneys, approximately located where Fallon's now stands. Could these be Dutch Billies, or was it just artistic licence and an embellishment of the drawing by Smith? So called Dutch Billies, reputedly named after King William of Orange, were a style of pre-Georgian architecture, brought to Ireland by French Huguenots and Dutch and Flemish protestants fleeing persecution in the late 17th century. The style is common in Amsterdam. Many of the Billies in Dublin and other towns were later either "Georgianified" by having walls built in front of their gables or demolished in the last century as they fell into disrepair, which was a shame. Maybe the three story building adjacent to the lane down to Brennan's yard was the remains of this terrace? This was demolished in the early 70s to make way for the building now occupied by the River Cafe. It didn't have a gable, but the roof could have been modified. The other thing I noticed are the arches at river level. What could they have been for? Were they drains to allow water to flow back to the river from the square when water level dropped? Or an intake for a mill race, feeding a mill that pre-dated the 19th-century mill that was demolished in 1985? Before the dam was built on the Liffey in the 1940s and regulated water flow, flood waters extended into the square as far as Brennan's Hardware and on one occasion, according to my late neighbour Fred Maher, the bridge in Athgarvan was closed for fear of it being washed away when the water level became dangerously high. There appears to be the gable wall of a building behind the two arches with what could be a mullioned window (the division between two openings visible in the higher resolution image). A medieval building which was gone by the time the first edition OSI map was drafted? On this map, there's also a structure in the square, in front of what is now McTernans. Could it have been a market house? We'll probably never know.

Illustration of Kilcullen Bridge. Image courtesy TCD Digital Collections repository.

A section from the illustration of Kilcullen Bridge above, showing possible Dutch Billys. Image courtesy TCD Digital Collections repository. 

References:

Wexford archaeologist Colm Moriarty's article about Dutch Billys.

 

Kilcullen Bridge illustration in the TCD archives. This is a higher resolution version of the image on the Kildare Archaeological Society's website.

 

Con Costello's article about Sir William Smith's four illustrations of Kildare.