Chapter 28.

Bremore,

which had been the manorial seat of a branch of the Barnewall family from the commencement of the 14th century. Lord Lansdowne is now the principal proprietor of the fee, and is* *characterized by all his tenantry as an’ excellent landlord.

Here is a very handsome cottage of Mr. Gilbert, opposite which, in a farm yard, the wreck of the ancient castle may be traced on a site, commanding a most extensive and sublime prospect. Near it are the remains of the old church, within which may be seen a stone, that seems to have formed the arching of the castle doorway, and bears the date of 1689. On the ground in front of the farm-house is another stone of the same edifice, charged with the armorial bearings of the families of Buriford, Howth, and Barnewall.

In early times the chapelry of Lambecher at Bremore was subservient to the church of Lusk, and long after its disunion paid a pension thereto.

For a notice of the church of Bremore in 1200, see *ante *at “Balrothery.”

By a private act of parliament of 1560, it was enacted, that [480] James Barnewall of Bremore, and Margaret his wife, should have the tithe fish within “the corde of Bremore,”, and, accordingly a subsequent inquisition finds his descendant John seised of a castle, forty messuages, and 60 acres here, a water mill, with the water course running by the land of Foulkstown and Moorpitts, and of all wrecks of the sea, and tithes of fishes appertaining to said manor.

In 1606 James Barnewall, son and heir of said John, had livery of seisin of Bremore. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1641 several barks lying off Skerries were plundered by the Confederates, and the spoil carried to “Barnewall of Bremore, a prime man.” [Borlase’s Irish Rebellion.]

In 1663 the lands of Bremore and Newhaven were found to he worth £100 pet annum, and to contain 405 acres. About which time, James Barnewall of Bremore was one of the signers of the Roman Catholic Remonstrance.

In 1736 Captain Vernon, then sheriff of the county of Dublin, being directed to give possession of the castle of Bremore to Mr. Tummon, was opposed by Captain Mac Culloch and his dependants. Fifty shots were exchanged, but without slaughter, at last the ammunition of the castle being spent, the besiegers drew near, made a breach, and took the garrison prisoners; but, Mac Culloch, his wife, and one O’Neill, having retired to a garden-house, necessitated another attack until they also were captured, and with the rest brought prisoners of war to Kilmainham gaol.

From Bremore, a pretty hedge road conducts to Balscadden, opening occasional vistas at right of the intermediate country to Drogheda, the fine castle of Gormanston towering amidst its woods, and the remote encircling sea.

Balscadden.

This little village, more anciently called Ballyscadden, is situated in a deep glen, cut up by a rugged [481] ravine, that in winter is the bed of the mountain rills. The churchyard exhibits the remains of the old church, but neither contains any monument of note, unless perhaps one to the Walshes of Stidalt. Near the village are four acres of glebe. There is also a new Roman Catholic church here, rectangular and roomy.

The parish is in the deanery of Garristown, and comprises 3,948a. 0r. 38p. in 16 townlands; the vicarage appertains to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, in whom the rectory is impropriate, and to whose treasurer the rectorial tithes, estimated at the annual value of £120, are payable. In the Catholic arrangement it is in the union of Balrothery. Its population in 1831 was 1,011 persons, of whom the Poor Inquiry Report states 220 to be labourers, 60 getting permanent employment, and 160 occasional. The Report of 1835 states, that there are not 10 Protestants in the parish. The National Board of Education gave £63 for the building of schools here, £35 for fitting them up, and allows £14 annually for their support.

Balscadden was an ancient manor of the Ormonde family. The principal proprietors here now are the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Gormanston, Mr. Wood, and Mr. Aynwright. The average acreable rent is 35s. per annum.

In 1178, when Archbishop Laurence O’Toole confirmed the possessions of Christ Church, the church of Balscadden and its tithes, and the advowson of its vicarage, were enumerated amongst them, which right was subsequently further assured by the charter of King Henry the Third, [Alan’s Liber Niger.] subject to the condition that four canons should be maintained there, to celebrate masses for the souls of said king and Archbishop Luke.

In 1250 King Henry granted in frankalmoigne to the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, three carucates, 89a.,* *and a mill in Balscadden, also the homage and service due by Robert and Andrew Passelewe (Paisley) and William Fitz Milo from their tenements in the same village, with one carucate and 12a., which Walter le Blund held in farm. The contents of this tract of land were estimated at 30 librates, and were granted to Christ Church on the condition of paying to the dean and chapter of St. Patrick’s half the yearly profits, but the prior and convent, after they had obtained possession, refused to fulfil the condition, whereof complaint being made, Archbishop Luke, with the advice of John de Taunton, Bishop of Kildare, and others, made an order that the manor should still continue in the possession of the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity, but that they should assign therefrom 15 librates to the dean and chapter. [Dign. Dec. p. 110.] This moiety the dean and chapter subsequently exchanged for certain lands called Rathsallagh and Ballyogan, near Carrickmines. [Repertorium Viride.]

In 1306 this church was valued to Pope Nicholas’s taxation at £10. For a notice of the manor in 1385, see at “Turvey.”

In 1421 Henry of Marleburgh, the Irish annalist, was vicar of this parish. His chronicles commence at 1285 and terminate in this year. They are published at the close of Dr. Hanmer’s Chronicle, and are frequently quoted by Archbishop Ussher, who affirms that the best MS. copy of them is in the Cottonian collection. For a notice of the manor in 1461, see at “Turvey.”

In 1515 Sir Thomas Butler was found seised of this and other manors in this county. In 1539 the vicarage was taxed to the First Fruits at £4 12s. 4d., while the regal visitation of 1615 reports the rectory as impropriate to the church of the Holy Trinity, that the vicarage was worth £12 per annum, and was filled by Thomas Hood, and that the church and chancel were then in good repair.

[483] In 1616 this manor belonged to the Earl of Ormonde. At the time of the commonwealth survey, 30a. of commonage, plantation measure, were stated to be here.

For a notice of James Duke of York’s possessions in this parish in 1665, see *ante, *at “Balrothery.” In 1666 Robert Finglas had a grant of certain premises here, and in particular of the church land of Balscadden, defined as 30 acres. In l669 Jenico Lord Gormanstown passed patent for “the farm of the land of Ballyscadden,” 112a., the parks of Stamullen, 60a., &c., plantation measure.

In the civil war of 1688 James Hackett forfeited the town and lands of Tobbertown and Ballygaddy, with the land of the church of Balscadden, containing 208a., &c.

In 1697 the Rev. Andrew Finglas was returned as parish priest of Balscadden and Balrothery, resident, as the document states, at Tobbertown, being 80 years old, lame, and blind, and having Mr. John Coghran, as his curate, living with him.

In 1703 the Hollow Blade Company had a grant of (inter alia) Balscadden, 31a., with church land called Priorsland, 28a., part of the estate of the before-mentioned James Hackett, attainted.

In 1805 the Board of First Fruits granted £500 towards building a new church here. In 1833, however, this parish was returned as one of those in which the Protestant service had not been celebrated for the last three years.

A road leads hence to the Naul, at the Dublin side of the stream that bounds the county. It commands some pretty views of the glen; but the lover of the picturesque should turn at Tobberstown, descend to the bridge of Doulagh, and, thence crossing into the county Meath, pursue the little road that leads by the river to what is called the old mill, but now the new mill of the Naul. The hedges along this road were (July, 1836,) breathing the perfume of wild roses and woodbine, while in the shady ditches [484] behind them, the sheep lay listlessly panting in the heated atmosphere. In such an hour it was cooling, as by sympathy, to see the bathers plunging

Their fervent limbs in the refreshing stream,”

and to look upon that stream itself, gliding in graceful meanders, while the silence of the valley was broken only by its babbling current, or the strokes of the mill-wheel that laboured to impede it. Hence the lovely glen of the Naul, with Westown House peering at its head; and Harbertstown, with its turret on a yet greater elevation, can only be seen to advantage by the pedestrian, who thus reaches a portion of the valley, called the Roches, closely hemmed in by precipitate cliffs, rich with vegetable drapery at their base, and in their tall summits caverned to a considerable depth. The gap of this fine glen is sentinelled at the Meath side by Snowton Castle, and on the Dublin by the dark castle, especially termed of the

Ch. 29. Naul.