Chapter 24.

Baldungan,

a conspicuous landmark for miles around it, while the eminence itself commands an extensive prospect both by sea and land.

The castellated remains, as described by Grose, consisted on the west end of two square towers with a parapet in front, covering a connecting passage. From these towers a regular building was carried on each side, but narrower, to which a similar tower was joined at the north-east angle, but at the south-east was only a small tower with stairs leading to the battlements. On the front were the arms of the Lords of Howth. A few feet south-east from the square, he adds, is a small chapel with a large chancel, and on the west end a square steeple with stone steps leading to the top, where there are two apertures for bells. All the windows, doors, and openings in the tower and church are pointed Gothic. The walls of the church and of that part of the tower, which is near the fabric, had perforations about four or five inches square, probably intended for the play of musquetry, on the occasion hereafter mentioned. The castle is, however, now completely wasted, and the church alone presents some traces of the description. The aisle is about 25 yards long, by six and a half broad. There is a cemetery adjacent, in which are several tombstones, but none worthy of note.

The parish is in the deanery of Garristown, and comprises 857a. 3r. 11p., in the one denomination.

[454] The rectory is wholly impropriate in the Earl of Howth, who is also the chief proprietor of the soil. Rent here varies from £2 to £2 10s. per acre, wages being about tenpence per day. There is neither church, glebe-house, nor glebe in the parish. Its population in 1831 was 88 persons, all Catholics, according to the Report of 1835, while the Poor Inquiry Report of the same year states the number 0f its labourers as 400, of whom 100 are permanently employed, 240 occasionally, and 60 almost always unemployed. But, as this return is utterly inconsistent with the total population of Baldungan, it must have inadvertently included some other parish, probably Holmpatrick, which in the Catholic dispensation is united with Baldungan.

A considerable portion of Baldungan was, soon after the English invasion, acquired by the Knights Templars, who established there a religious house which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. This chapel the Archbishop of Dublin afterwards granted to the religious house of Kilbixy. See “Balrothery” at the year 1200.

On the suppression of the Templars Reginald de Berneval (Barnewall) became seised of the lands of Baldungan, from whose family they passed, by marriage, to the de Berminghams, while the chapelry was tributary to the church of Lusk, the advowson being in the latter family.

In the beginning of the 16th century this was the seat of Richard de Bermingham, Esq., whose sister and heiress, Anne; was married to Sir Christopher St. Lawrence, Lord of Howth, by which marriage the estate, with the advowson of the church, passed into that family. It, however, continued to be held for some time as of the Barnewalls’ manor of Balrothery.

For notices of the church in 1530, see at “Lusk,” and in 1532, see at “Balrothery.”

[455] In 1639 the Rectory of Baldungan was taxed to the First Fruits at £3 13s. 4d., and the vicarage at £11 19s. 11d., Irish.

In 1591 a recovery was suffered to the use of the St. Lawrence family, of “the manor” with the town and lands of Baldungan.

In 1612 Robert Barnewall of Dunbroe, and John Cusack of Cosinstown, were seised in fee of the manor, &c of Baldungan, with the appurtenances, one castle, six messuages, and 300a., with Balleston, 80a., Leyton, 60a., &c.

The regal visitation of 1615 reports this as a small rectory, of the annual value of 20 marks, that Thomas Wood was then the incumbent, that the church and chancel were wholly ruinous, and the profits of the living therefore sequestered.

In 1641 Thpmas Fitz William, who seems to have been the lessee of Lord Howth, fortified and held out this castle for the confederates of the Pale against the parliamentary forces. It was ultimately surrendered when the greater part of the fortifications was blown up with gunpowder. Cromwell is said to have subsequently battered the remains from his ships, but it appears somewhat problematical, from the intervening distance, that any such event could have occurred, at least from sea. The Husseys soon aftewards acquired a derivative interest in Baldungan, and in 1663 the right of Matthias Hussey therein, after his father’s death, was decreed and saved in the patent of Sir Thomas Wharton, while Lord Howth, having shewn that he had not participated in the war of 1641, was restored to his full rights herein.

The circumstances, under which the first view of Baldungan broke upon the author’s notice, cannot be forgotten. It was at the earliest dawn of the morning, and from the ascent of that hill which has been noted under the martial appellation of the Man of War. Looking eastward the valleys to the sea wore a singularly interesting appearance, filled so entirely with the morning mists that all seemed one sheet of water, from whose bosom, calmly majestic, rose the summits [456] as of island hills basking in the first beams of day. By degrees a gentle gale shifted the vapours that curtained the lowland, the scenery broke from this hoary chaos, and first the massy walls and towers of Baldungan kindled in the early light upon a neighbouring eminence. In flitting succession every hill threw off its whitening shroud even to the base, chasms opening in the valleys expanded to the enthusiastic gaze, until at length, All undrawn, every rock, every promontory of the coast was distinctly defined, beyond which the billows of the Irish sea danced in a boundless expanse of wavy light.

The road from Baldungan to Balrothery is hilly, and commands fine views of land and sea from Clogher Head to Howth. Passing Milverton, a great portion of which was in the 17th century the estate of Viscount Fitz Harding, having been forfeited by William Treves and John Arthure in the war of 1641; and is now the estate of Mr. James Hans Hamilton, and the residence of Mr. Wood, an obscure little burial-ground succeeds, called Saint Mavie. Hampton, the handsome seat of Mr. Hamilton next invites attention, and presently appear the interesting ruins of Balrothery, and in the distance Balbriggan whitening all the beach.

Ch. 25. Balrothery.