by
This is the story of a stroll such as might be taken
on a Sunday afternoon. a sedate tour on foot around Ballymore Eustace and its
environs. It is a story of a stroll through
time, four thousand years or more perhaps; a true story, part written in stone,
and part whispered by the green shapes and mounds which are so much part of the
Irish countryside. But it is not a
complete story. Not all of the facts
are known and many details are unclear for the present. These may have been lost, or may lie buried
awaiting further enquiry. Perhaps we
have not paid sufficient attention, or that our store of knowledge is
insufficient to allow us to understand.
It may be that we have not asked the right questions. However, our sources are impeccable. They have withstood the test of time and
have endured, and we may always ask again.
So with field monuments for sources and the landscape as storyteller let
us proceed.
Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare is a small town
situated on the North bank of the river Liffey, in the foothills of the Wicklow
mountains close to the county Wicklow border.
The area under study is the countryside within a 3 km radius of the
town, chosen for its rich store of archaeological remains covering a wide
timespan and all within comfortable walking distance of the town.
The actions of mankind over thousands of years may
thus be traced on the landscape, and contemplated in the course of a pleasant
stroll.
Podzolic soil covers glacial deposits of sand and
gravel which overlie the Lower Palaeozoic slates and grits at this part of the
northwestern edge of the Leinster Batholith.
The land rises steeply east of the county boundary quickly changing from
the good pastureland of the foothills to rough mountain.. Mean elevation of the
area under study is 180 metres OD.
One km west of the town is Bishopsland and although
there is no monument visible but the fields with the mountains close by it is
well to stop awhile and remember the dramatic find here.
The discovery of a horde of tools in this townland in
1942 points to a variety of activities being carried out in the locality around
1200 BC. The hoard appears to have been
not so much the tool kit of a specialised craftsman but rather that of an
individual practising a variety of technical skills. It contained both woodworking and metalworking equipment as well
as a sickle for harvesting cereals. The tools may indicate that woodworking,
metalworking and cereal farming was being carried out in the area in the second
millennium BC. On the other hand it has
been suggested that the horde was the equipment of a travelling smith, perhaps
hidden for safekeeping. We may never know, but its owner must have had business
here and considered in conjunction with the early monuments in the immediate
vicinity, the human activity of the earlier Bronze age is brought to mind.
About 1.5 km. southeast of Bishopland is the Longstone,
a granite monolith now recumbent. It
measures a little over 4 metres in length and 3 metres in circumference at the
base. The monolith resembles the
standing stones at Punchestown, Forenaughts, Tipper and Mullaghmast (all in Co.
Kildare and all of granite). The
longstone at Punchestown marked a cist grave which was found to be empty but
excavation of the Forenaughts longstone nearby revealed cremated remains, and
fragments of a particular two-holed wrist-wrist guard which may be part of the
'Beaker assemblage'. Although standing
stones can be generally enigmatic, if the Ballymore Eustace longstone marked a
burial site contemporaneous with Fornaughts or Punchestown (7 kms north) it is
not unreasonable to suggest an early Bronze age or late Neolithic date.
Eight hundred metres southeast of the Longstone is a
stone circle known as the Piper's Stones.
The circle contains 19 stones proximate but not contiguous to each
other. It is has been suggested these
stone circles have their origins in the henges of the late Neolithic. In the
absence of dating analysis this type of circle probably originated between 1500
– 700 BC. It has been suggested that these small though important groups of
stone circles are best considered as representing localised but important
episodes in the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Ireland.
3.
Fulachta Fiadh
Less than 1 km. southwest of the Longstone are two fulacta fiadh within 50 metres of
each other. These monuments are thought
to have been cooking places. Dates
between 1500 - 500 BC are suggested generally.
About thirty sites have been excavated and all produced C14
dates of around 1100 BC. That there was
human activity at this up to the first millenium BC is almost certain.
Proceeding half a km east of the fulachta fiadh lies
a ring barrow beside a souterain. These
are burial places that even with excavation may be difficult to date. It is has been suggested that while their
origins lie in the Bronze age, ring barrows are possibly the earliest
recognisable Iron Age burial form. Others hold that these monuments range from
late Neolithic to early Iron Age. Apart
from ringforts this appears to be the only Iron Age monument in the area.
Our next stop is a ring-fort.
Ring-forts were probably the homesteads of the
countryside and very common throughout Ireland. They vary in type and size and are Ireland's most plentiful field
monument. A typical ring-fort may have
a diameter of say 30 metres with some as much as 60 metres. Bivalate, trivalate and platform ring-forts
are a less common type which are probably high-status sites. Radiocarbon and dendrochronolgical dating
evidence suggests a period between 600 and 900 AD for the construction of most
surviving ring-forts. The expert who produced the foregoing evidence does not
deny suggestions that ring-forts may have been in use as far back as the Bronze
Age. Radiocarbon tests suggested dates
between 200 and 140 BC for houses within a rath at Swinford Co. Mayo. Some ring-forts
may well have been occupied long after the Norman invasion.
This souterain is close to a ring barrow and does not
appear to be associated with a ring-fort.
Souterains, which may have been used for defensive purposes and possibly
for cool storage are thought to be from the period 500 - 1000 AD. However it has been pointed out that very
few datable finds have been found in association with them, and because they
vary so much in size and plan that it is difficult to isolate their major
functions.
This Norman fortification lies on a hilltop at
Sillagh about three km north of the town but not much is known about it. This type of fortification was built soon
after the Norman invasion in the late twelfth century. It would have been near the edge of the
(later) pale on reasonably good land, and it stands near the old route from the
south. It may well have been thrown up
by Strongbow's forces when he came from Waterford to Dublin with Diarmait mac
Morchada in 1170. One expert argues that while
most mottes were erected in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries a number
of motte castles were built in Leinster in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries as a reaction against Gaelic Resurgence in Leinster. Another expert however points out that of the mottes
that have excavated most of the evidence would date their construction to
sometime between 1170 to 1230.
Two kms to the south of here is the town of Ballymore
Eustace.
Historical background.
Very soon after the Norman invasion Ballymore became
one of the principal manors of the of the Archbishops of Dublin. A castle was erected to protect settlers as
early as 1181-90 to protect the area against the attacks of the O'Tooles and
the O'Byrnes whom the Normans had deposed, forcing them into the hills 2 km to
the east of the town. In the thirteenth
century the settlement became a borough, the burgages being held under the laws
of Bretauil. The town has had a
turbulent history lying as it does on the edge of the Pale. The epithet Eustace appeared in the
sixteenth century presumably because that family were hereditary constables of
the castle at Ballymore. They were also
substantial landholders in the area.
Ballymore was built on the north slopes of the valley
of the river Liffey. Two vantage points
Close Hill and Garrison Hill are almost at the centre of the town and are still
green fields today. While the site of
the castle is a matter of debate Close Hill is favoured over Garrison Hill
because of substantial masonry lumps beneath the turf. Only excavation will tell, but there was a
castle as a sketch completed in 1783 shows.
The ecclesiastical status of the manorial lands is reflected in the
townland names of Bishopsland, Bishophill and Bishoplane, but the location of
the medieval borough is not now known.
The ground plan of house property in chapel street close to the bridge
has much of the appearance of typical burgage plots. Market Square resembles the
market place of a seventeenth century town, but there is no trace of the
medieval market.
The Catholic church built in 1829 is largely
unaltered and like St. John's is still used for worship.
10 St John's Church (Church of Ireland)
St. John's Church was built in the early nineteenth
century to replace the former protestant church burnt in the troubles of
1798. That there has been a church here
since pre-Norman times is suggested by the presence of a ringed cross 3.5 m.
high and just over a metre across, and very recently stated by Duchas to be
pre-1200.
Barretstown Castle is a towerhouse 2 km. north of the
town. It is said to have been built for
a member of the Fitzgerald family in the sixteenth century. It has been estimated that there are the
remains of over 3000 towerhouses in Ireland.
These structures were at the peak of their popularity between 1400 and
1650. These castles were designed for light defence against general lawlessness
and were uniform throughout Ireland in the fifteenth century, being the homes
of both Gaelic and Norman families.
Spanning the river Liffey at Ballymore is a very
beautiful six arch stone bridge, which is granite pointed and trimmed. It was built in 1784 to replace the previous
bridge, which was further down stream.
13 Limekilns
At Downdenstown 2 km northeast of the town are the
remains of limekilns. Limestone was
burned here to obtain fertiliser up to latter part of the nineteenth century.
14 The Old
Mill
Close by the town on the bank of the river Liffey
stand the ruins of a water driven textile mill. This was built in 1802 on the site of a corn mill and is reputed
to have employed up to 700. It was
still in production in 1907. It is
probable that milling has been carried on here since Norman times at least.
15 Field
boundaries
Field boundaries in the immediate area bear witness
to the large demesnes from the seventeenth century. One field is more than
sixty acres and there are many 30 to 50 acre fields within old boundaries. These contrast with the much smaller fields
'beyond the Pale' one km to the east in Co. Wicklow.
16 Tullow
Branch line Great Southern and Western railway
The Tullow Branch line opened in 1885 and closed in
the 1950s. The local station was
Harristown. Although the rails have
long gone the railway embankment can still be seen from a number of points
around Ballymore.
17 Poulaphuca
Power Station and The Filter Beds
In 1939 a dam was built on the River Liffey to
facilitate a hydroelectric power station.
This resulted in the creation of the Poulaphouca and Blessington
lakes. A water filtration plant was
subsequently built in the same area and both are very visible on the landscape.
Thus we have returned to the present almost without
being aware of it, and we face the future.
But what of the future; what story will the landscape tell to the
generations to come? And what of those
impeccable sources that have so magnificently endured. Will they survive to bear witness to the
rising generations, of thousands of years of human activity, which developed
their own intimate presence?
There are currently planning applications before
Kildare County Council for the building of hundreds of houses in that beautiful
sixty acre demesne field, a field which contains two ring barrows, surprisingly
not listed. Less than seven km. away
plans are afoot to build a huge power station in beautiful countryside, which
will discharge its (clean!) waste water into the river Liffey. Fields are being continually torn to pieces
to supply an ever-growing demand for sand and gravel. New and wider roads are planned. Large and continuing expansion
at the water filtration works above the town abstracts ever more water from the
Liffey while at same time Wicklow and Kildare county councils pump steadily
increasing loads of sewage waste into the reduced water flow.
Must experience be confined to what may be read or
observed in pictures moving or still? We
are assured on every occasion that action will be taken to preserve our
heritage, and that the environment will be protected. But when?
So, what of the future, and what of the Sunday
stroller who would listen to the stories of the landscape, or pause awhile in
ancient fields?
Let him make himself heard.