Old Bawn

Old Bawn.

Old Bawn, about 100 years ago, was described as a large old house, with old-fashioned leaded windows. In the centre there was a small cupola, surmounted by a weathercock, which contained a clock out of repair. In each corner of the clock were the figures, *1, 7, 2, 4, *with the words “Math Cr.” The hands covered the remainder. Probably the figures signified that it was made in 1727, and repaired in 1741. Before the house there was an avenue of trees, together with several plantations, orchards, and gardens.

William Bulkeley, Archdeacon of Dublin, [He was a son of Archbishop Bulkeley, and was a person of great virtue and piety. We are told he made it his diversion to improve and adorn his estate with plantations, and that from a rude, desolate, and wild land he brought it to a most delightful patrimony. - Blacker’s *Sketches of Booterstown, *pp. 99, 159.] as assignee of Sir James Craig, had a grant from Charles I, dated 5th March, 1627, of many towns and lands, amongst them those of Old Bawn, and lost, by buildings burned and destroyed there in 1641, £3,000.

By the marriage of Esther Bulkeley, heiress to the estate, on 15th April, 1702, to James Worth Tynte, [The Tyntes of Old Bawn were descended from a Somersetshire family. The first to settle in Ireland was Robert Tynte, who came to this country about 1645. His son, Sir Henry Tynte, Knight, was returned as M.P. for the County Cork in April, 1661, and died a month later. James Worth Tynte represented Rathcormack, and subsequently Youghal, in Parliament, and was created a privy councillor. He died in 1758, and was buried at Donnybrook His son, Robert, married a daughter of the 1st Earl of Aldborough, and died in 1760, being also buried at Donnybrook. He was succeeded by his eldest son, James Stratford Tynte, who was created a baronet, and was General of the Volunteers. He died in 1781, and was buried at Donnybrook. As he had no son, the title became extinct. - See Blacker’s *Sketches of Booterstown, *pp. 127, 281, 282, 286, 287, 306, and Burke’s *Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, *ed. 1844, p. 6i6.] this place became the property of that family, who are still the owners in fee; and when the above description was written, in 1779, it was in possession of Lady Tynte. About the end of the last century a paper-mill was established here, which is still carried on, and is now one of the largest in Ireland.

I visited this place in 1875, with Austin Cooper, grandson to the gentleman who wrote the foregoing description. We spent some hours in examining the locality. The dwelling-house has high pointed gables, and great chimneys, fluted at the sides in the Tudor style. The present house may have been built in Elizabeth’s reign. The walls are nearly four feet thick; the hall-door has a handsome porch, with pillars of round and square blocks of stone alternately. The greater part of the house is covered with ivy. The hall is a handsome, square apartment its ceiling is low, with large carved beams dividing it into squares. The walls are wainscoted, and there is a curious chimney-piece, with the Bulkeley arms over it.

The dining-room has a similar ceiling, and is also wainscoted; but the most remarkable piece of antiquity is the chimney-piece. This reaches to the ceiling, and represents in very bold relief the building of a great castle. Many workmen, beautifully modelled, from four to six inches in height, and in some places nearly projecting from the surface, are busily engaged with ladders, spades, trowels, hods, and other implements of building. Some carry stones, and one in the centre is working at the great gate in the middle of the castle, on various parts of which they are all employed. I remarked that everyone held a sword, spear, or dagger in one hand, while working with the other. Underneath is the date - 1635. It is a rare piece of work, and I think is intended to represent the building of the walls of Jerusalem, as related in the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. It may have been erected by the aforesaid William Bulkeley, son of Launcelot Bulkeley, Archbishop of Dublin from 1619 to 1650.

The dining-room is handsomely furnished with antique furniture; the staircase is well-proportioned, and the balustrades are of carved oak. The house is a very interesting old structure, [Mr. W. P. Briley recently visited Old Bawn, and has kindly furnished some additional information respecting it. He says there is much carving on the beams of the ceiling of the hall, and that over the fire-place there are two heads. The chimney-piece in the dining-room is made of plaster. On each side of the design mentioned by Mr. Handcock there are two heads emitting clouds of smoke from their mouths. There is a winding staircase leading to two upper stories. On it there is a curious coloured window. The banisters are ornamented with carved devices. In the room over the hall there is a marble chimney-piece with pillars. The furious driving of the phantom coach of Archbishop Bulkeley is a well-known tradition in the neighbourhood of Tallaght, and the coach is said to visit Old Bawn on the anniversary of his death.] and is at present owned by Mr. Joseph M’Donnell, whose family has for many years carried on paper-making in the adjoining mill.

The mill is now the property of a company, of which Mr. M’Donnell is the manager. Several of the Dublin journals are supplied from it. The paper is principally made of Esparto grass and straw, with some admixture of rags. The Esparto grass and straw are first boiled for eight hours, at high pressure, by steam. The pulp is washed, bleached with chlorine, washed again, coloured with a mixture of red and blue, which result in a pure white. Then washed again, and brought into two great vats. Thence pumped into a distributor, from which it flows nearly as thin as oil on to an endless wire-webbing, the required breadth for the largest newspaper. This fine wire cloth, revolving on rollers, carries the pulp evenly onwards, drawing off the water as it goes. The pulp, growing drier, is passed over a vacuum chamber, in which, by the pressure of the air, it is so much consolidated, that it now leaves the wire-web in a soft sheet, like wet blotting-paper. It then passes over and under rollers, heated more and more until it is thoroughly dried and pressed, and is finally coiled on a roller at the end of the machine. Each roll contains as much as four miles - for papers worked by the Walter press. For others, a machine unwinds it from the roll, and cuts it into the proper size, at the rate of 200 per minute. The machinery is driven by a steam-engine of 200 horse power, and by several smaller ones, besides a large water-wheel, 40 feet in diameter. There is also a gas apparatus, as the work is carried on night and day; very few hands being required. [The mill has been closed since the above was written. company were unable to compete with foreign manufacture. The place is now a desert.]

The plantations and orchards, which existed 100 years ago, have been nearly all cut down, only a few old trees remaining. [One of these, a large cypress, still flourishing, is called the “Informer’s Tree,” owing to the circumstance that a rebel, condemned to be hung on it, was pardoned for having given information. The stumps of three trees are still to be seen on which his companions were hung. These latter having withered, it is said on this account, were cut down.] Near the house there was formerly an extensive deer-park. The walls which enclosed it in many places remain perfect. One of the former proprietors had a herd of reindeer, which he imported from Lapland; but they soon died out, as the climate did not suit them.

A mill-stream taken off the Dodder at Kiltipper supplies the large pond near the house, and then is led along the crest of the hill, between Old bawn and Tallaght, to the Haarlem mills, now belonging to the Messrs. Neill. When this mill-stream was first made is not known; but it was probably early in the last century. [At the back of Old Bawn lies Ballymanagh. During the rebellion of 1798 it was occupied by some of the rebels. It was besieged by the soldiers, who killed one of the rebels and dislodged the remainder. They made off with the body of their companion, but left it in a field near Tymon Castle. There the soldiers, following in hot pursuit, found it, and, bringing it to the Castle, they hung it out of one of the windows, where it remained until it dropped asunder.]

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