Preface

Dublin is particularly fortunate in its surroundings. Within easy reach lies an attractive coast where in close association may be found cliff, beach and towering headland. On the south a great mountain tract provides an almost endless variety of moorland, valley and river scenery. In the matter of lakes only can the Dublin district be said to be deficient, there being nothing worthy of the name nearer than the Loughs Bray, and these, owing to their elevation, size and surroundings, must be classed as tarns rather than lakes.

The district fascinated me in boyhood, and holds its interest for me even now in maturer years after visits to many a foreign land. There is not a glen, mountainside or quiet village described in these pages that I have not visited over and over again, and always with a renewed pleasure.

It is now nearly twenty-five years since I contributed to the Press my first series of illustrated topographical articles under the title of "Rambles Around Dublin." These appeared in The Evening Telegraph, and were afterwards issued in book form. They were followed at irregular intervals by others in The Evening Telegraph and The Weekly Irish Times. All were the result of visits to, and observation in the localities described, coupled with such information as I was able to obtain in regard to their history and other matters of interest. As my store of topographical notes accumulated, I soon found that, owing to the exigencies of space, it was impossible to make any newspaper article as complete as I should have wished, and thus, in the course of years, the quantity of unused matter became considerable enough to suggest the placing before the public the entire result of over twenty-five years rambling, cycling and mountain climbing in the district. The plan I have adopted, in all but the two concluding chapters, is that of describing the district around Dublin in a number of one-day excursions such as would be possible to a person of average activity.

With the exception of a few hackneyed resorts easy of access, the Dublin folk in my earlier days appeared to take but little interest in the surroundings of their city. That reproach, however, can no longer be made, and nowadays on popular holidays and week-ends, considerable numbers may be seen in places where scarcely one would have been found thirty years ago. With the evolution and perfection of the bicycle, the great improvement in the roads, the construction of light railways to Blessington and Lucan, the extension of our splendid tram service to Howth, Dalkey and Rathfarnham, and last though not least, the advent of the automobile, a new interest has been awakened in the beautiful surroundings of our metropolis, and a great vogue for the country has sprung up among all classes. The knowledge of this fact has induced me to write this book in the hope that it may stimulate that interest in those who already know the charm of our surroundings, and excite it in those who do not, and that it may be the means of enabling others to enjoy the pleasures I have derived from rambling among the many picturesque and interesting places in The Neighbourhood of Dublin.

I am deeply indebted to my friend, Mr. Louis H. Brindley, for reading this work before publication, for his many valuable suggestions, and for giving me, throughout, the benefit of his literary knowledge and sound judgement.

As illustrative of the lighter side of the subject, I take this not inappropriate opportunity of publishing the following lines which were addressed to me some years ago by a friend to whom I had forwarded a copy of my "Rambles Around Dublin":

THE IDLER TO THE RAMBLER

Dear Joyce, it seems strange that I never have seen a
Glimpse of Clondalkin or Bohernabreena,
Puck's Castle or Crumlin, or Swords or Balrothery,
So I fear that my ignorance fairly will bother ye;
But before you were born I've oft picnicked gaily
At Killiney, the Dargle, Lough Bray, and old Bailey,
I've inspected the prison at Lusk, a friend's gig in,
And from Skerries have walked straight ahead to Balbriggan,
As for Ireland's Eye, and the huge "Nose of Howth,"
Quite as well as yourself, I'm familiar with both.
I have always admired your friend "Katty Gollagher,"
Whose attractions have sometimes induced me to follow her
And have "taken the Scalp" - alto' not "on the warpath."
Long ago when the Earl of Carlisle was Lord Morpeth.
The famous "Three Rocks" I so often have mounted,
That my feats might, I think, by the dozen be counted
And the toughest lump sugar in all my experience,
I found on the Sugar Loaf's peak a few years since.
Ah! the fresh hill-side heather - whenever to that I come
I'm always disposed for a hearty viaticum,
For a mountain is clearly a part of the land which
Makes serious demands on a beef or ham sandwich,
And though I'm in general almost a teetotaler,
I shouldn't much relish a temperance hotel here.
But now I must stop, and no longer my fun try,
By rhyming about this suburban "Joyce country";
So good-bye, my dear friend, and proceed with your Rambles,
And ambles and gambols, o'er thickets and brambles,
And highways and byways, on foot or on bicycle -
A mode of conveyance which "awfully nice" I call.

The genial "Idler" has gone to his rest. Had we been more nearly contemporaries, he too, might have become a "Rambler."

WESTON ST. JOHN JOYCE.

DUBLIN,

May, 1912.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

SINCE the first edition of this book appeared eight years ago, I have suffered a personal loss in the death of my father, P. W. Joyce, who wrote the Introduction to the volume.
Disorganisation caused by the War has considerably delayed the second edition. I trust the appearance in it of several new chapters, together with the addition of numerous notes, will compensate for any disappointment experienced by those who have recently found it impossible to obtain copies of the earlier issue.
I am pleased to think that my efforts have helped to increase the number of those who take an interest in the surroundings of our old city, and am happy in the knowledge that the book has made many new friends for me among its readers.

WESTON ST. JOHN JOYCE.

INTRODUCTION

THE neighbourhood of Dublin, from an historical point of view, presents in miniature the history of English colonisation in Ireland. Pent at first within the circuit of their wall-girt city, out of which they durst not go forth alone or unarmed the colonists at length took heart of grace and ventured to occupy outlying villages and important positions in which they built fortified houses and castles. Those who settled on the north enjoyed, for long periods, comparatively peaceful possession, protected as they were from harassing raids by the interposition of the city between them and the mountains. Not so, however, with those who established themselves in the chain of settlements and outposts skirting the southern border of the plains. These were subjected to continual incursions by the natives from the mountainous tracts of Dublin and Wicklow. Even with the advantages conferred by the, possession of superior arms, equipment and defences, the hardy colonists, mostly old soldiers and men trained to the art of war, were continually obliged to abandon their homesteads and flee for safety to the city. The disparity between the ambition and the ability of the early English colony for conquest, is well illustrated by the fact that liberal as was the area of the Pale which they mapped out as their territory, there were at intervals large portions in which they could only remain by paying heavily in "Black Rents" to the Irish, or into which, more likely, they dared not venture at all.

The menace of the mountains was one of the most serious obstacles to the realisation of English ambition. Frowning down upon the colonists was a wild and almost impenetrable tract of mountain, desert and forest, within the sanctuary of which the natives were able to organise their predatory raids with such impunity that nothing short of a formidable expedition could hope to succeed in any measure of retaliation. This struggle, on the south and south-west, went on intermittently through the centuries, and at times, in consequence of the unsettled conditions of life resulting from this guerilla warfare, large tracts of arable land had to be abandoned and allowed to lapse into desert condition.

The opening of the 17th century saw some tendency to build country residences of the dwellinghouse rather than the fortified type, in the district around Dublin, though no doubt their occupants in many cases had reason to regret the venture during the lawlessness and disturbances which accompanied the Insurrection of 1641. From this period there seems to have been a steady growth of country establishments, not merely in districts which are now suburban, but also in areas beyond them. At the time that Rocque constructed his map (about 1750), the city had not extended, roughly speaking, further than the Rotunda on the north, James's Gate on the east, and in what are now the populous urban districts of Rathmines and Rathgar, Pembroke, Blackrock and Kingstown, small villages and stately country residences stood among tillage lands, green pastures and waving cornfields which survived in part within the memory of many now living. In the beginning of the 19th century the wilds of Wicklow were opened up by a system of military roads, and the construction of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway some thirty years later, gave a great impetus to building along the southern shore of the Bay, in time converting it into a continuous residential district as far as Dalkey, while the extension of the railway system in subsequent years through the district, brought many places which prior to that had been almost inaccessible, within easy reach of the Dublin public.

It is desirable to associate history with topography, and accordingly, all through this book, the reader will find brought under his attention the historical events as well as the traditions in connection with the several castles, mansioffs, homesteads, church ruins, demesnes, forts, hills, valleys, &c., together with references to the historical or legendary personages associated with them.

P. W. JOYCE.
DUBLIN,
May, 1912

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

OF DUBLIN

ITS TOPOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES AND

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

BY

WESTON ST. JOHN JOYCE

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES

OF IRELAND

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE

AUTHOR'S PHOTOGRAPHS AND SKETCHES

AND

AN INTRODUCTION

BY

P. W. JOYCE, LL.D., T.C.D.

To Chapter 1.