Ancient walls, castles and towers of Dublin.

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CHAP. III. **

Of the antient walls, castles, and towers of the city of Dublin

That the walls and fortifications about Dublin were raised by the Ostmen or Danes in the 9th century, is a point that admits of no controversy; historians are uniform upon this head, though none of them are so particular as to fix an aera for the first erection. As it was the head and capital of their colonies in Leinster, from whence they issued out upon all occasions against their enemies: it is no way improbable but that they rendered it fit for defence and security.

Soon after they first possessed it; which seems to have been about the year 838, when we are told by the Annals “that a fleet of sixty fail of those foreigners entered the river Liffey, and another of the same number possessed themselves of the mouth of the river Boyn at Drogheda.”

Ware indeed from the authority of some Irish histories, takes it for granted, that the Danes possessed themselves of the city of Dublin, and of the neighbouring territory called Fingal, before the year 851.” He might have fixed that event to an earlier period; for it is manifest, from the annals of Ulster, “that in the year 843 Nuad Mac-Segene, a religious of Kil-Achad, suffered martyrdom from the Danes of Dublin, who also pillaged the church of Kil-Achad.” As therefore we find them settled at Dublin in this last mentioned year, it is no way improbable that they possessed themselves of it five years earlier, when their great fleet first appeared in the mouth of the Liffey.

In the year 1000 the same people repaired (Ware) and fortified the city with new works, and five years after king Melaghlin marched to Dublin, and set fire to the suburbs; but the strength of the walls hindered him from making any impression on the city.

An eye-witness (See Hibernica, p. 10) tells us, “that when earl Strongbow first laid siege to Dublin in the year 1170, Miles de Cogan lodged close to the walls,” and he mentions also St. Mary’s-gate on the east part of the city, and the fouth gate*, *and that the kerne were mounted on the walls.

Cambrensis, (Vaticinal Hist of Irel.) who was contemporary with these actions, gives also the same account; from all which it is evident, that the city was encompassed with walls before the arrival of the English and it may be seen* *that in the writ sent by king John to the lord justice Fitz-Henry in 1204, for building the castle, he commanded him to compel the citizens to strengthen and repair the city walls, the fortifications about the city having then, it seems, gone in some measure to decay.

In the annals of Ireland published by Camden at the end of his Britannia, ascribed by some (Stanihurst Descrip. Hib. Cap 7.) to Philip Flatisbury, but by others, (Ware de Script. Cap. 10. Et 12.) more truly, to Christopher Pembrige, it is said, “that the church of the dominicans (on the Inn’s-quay) was in the year 1316 destroyed by the mayor and citizens of Dublin, when they expected to be befieged by Edward Bruce, and the stones converted to the building of the city walls, which were then enlarged on the north part above the Merchants-quay; for that formerly the walls ran by the church of St. Owen, where (proceeds Pembrige) we still see a tower beyond the gate, with another gate in the street where the taverns are,” i.e. in Winetavern-street. From this description given by Pembrige, some judgement may be formed how the antient walls of the city were carried, namely, from Wine-tavern-gate along the south side of Cook-street, till they joined Owen’s-arch, which yet remains, and was a portal to the city and from thence wore continued north of Owen’s church-yard to a castle called Pagan’s-cattle, in Page’s court, where was another portal, and from thence they extended to New-gate.

Some remains of these ancient walls may be seen in a void plot of ground lying between School-house-lane and Owen’s-arch, the residue of them being for the most part built on, and the traces and evidences thereof interely changed, must be judged of by the description given by Pembrige before mentioned, which was given, if not by a contemporary witness, at least by one who writ a very few years after. For that writer closes his annals with the year 1347, at which time he probably died; and we. Rather choose to follow his testimony, than that of Richard Stanihurst (Descrip. Hib. Cap. 3)* a writer of the 16th century, who inverts the order of the story, and would have the new wall erected at the time of Cruce’s; invasion to be the inner wall before described, “for that (says he) the citizen mistrusted that the walls that went along both the quays (i. e. *the Merchants-quay and Wood-quay) should not have been of sufficient force to out-hold the enemy.”

The walls of the city, including those of the castle, in their largest extent did not take up an Irish mile. We shall endeavour to trace them out, as far as the ruins of time, and the penury of writers will suffer; and as some parts of them in several places are yet visible we shall connect them together, partly by probable conjecture, and partly by such memoirs as have occurred.

From the North or Store-tower of the castle, formerly mentioned, the city wall was carried by the garden of Cork-house, which was antiently the churchyard of St. Mary les Dames, unto Dame’s-gate, which stood upon the rising of Cork-hill, opposite to a small alley, called by some Scarlet-alley, and by some Salutation-alley. It is to be noted by the way, that the street now called Cork-hill, is no antient name of the place, but was affixed to it only in the last century, from a house erected there by the first earl of Cork, in which now is kept Lucas’s coffee-house, the Old Exchange, and some other tenements inhabited by tradesmen. The proof of this particular may in some measure be collected from a grant of the ground on which those buildings stand, to the said earl of Cork, now to be seen in his majesty’s Rolls-office, passed in the reign of king Charles I. though enrolled in the 28th of Charles II. among other grants made to that nobleman by Queen Elizabeth, king James I. and king Charles I.

The grant is “of one piece of land with the appurtenances, situate near the castle ditch of Dublin, late in the tenure of Jaques Wingfield, extending from the wall on the north part of the said castle, in breadth an hundred feet, and from the bridge of the said castle in length to the wall of the city of Dublin, adjoining to a certain tower of the said castle (which must be the store-tower) towards the wast one hundred and fifty feet. also the whole piece now or late void ground lying near the east and north wall of Dublin, extending from the cattle called Fyan’s cattle, and so near the wall, from the wall of the said city on the weft, unto a garden late in the tenure of William Grace or Patrick Kelly, or one of them, and the orchard called Pagan’s orchard, and so along by the mears of the said orchard unto the Hogg-lane on the east, and from the river Aneliffe on the north unto the walls of the said city, and the king’s way called Dame’s-street, on the south and west, together with the ground, soil, and bottom, and other appurtenances of and in the limits aforesaid in the county of the city of Dublin. Also a tenement late covered with thatch, and two gardens adjoining, in the parish of St. Andrew’s, without the Dame’s-Gate, within or near to the said city in the county of the city of Dublin, late parcel of St. Mary’s-abbey near Dublin.”

We have given this part of the record at large*, *though it does not all properly belong to the subject of the present chapter; yet we thought it necessary in regard it shews how much the city is encreased in buildings and improvements, even since the reign of king Charles I. when gardens and void spaces of ground, and thatched houses were to be seen even within the narrow compass of the walls.

To proceed. Dame’s-gate, antiently called the eastern-gate, and St. Mary’s-gate, and so mentioned by Maurice Regan, did not take its name from the mill-dam near it., as some have conjectured, but from the church of St. Mary les Dames, contiguous to it on the inside of the walls; and till the reformation (MS of Robert Ware) the image of the Virgin Mary stood in a nich of stone work over the gate , the pedestal and other footsteps whereof remained there till the gate itself was demolished within our own memory: From this gate, the street called Dame’s-street derives its name, extending in a line from east to west to Hoggin-green. This gate was built with towers castle-wise, and was armed with a portcullis. It was one of the narrowest entrances into the city, and standing upon an ascent was, when business encreased, and the town grew more populous, much thronged and incumbered with carriages; for remedy whereof, the earl of Strafford attempted (Ibid.) to have the passage enlarged by throwing down a part of the city wall, and some houses adjoining thereto; but the neighbouring proprietors could not be prevailed on to yield their consents upon the terms proposed, and the project came to nothing.

At this time the places, where now Crane-lane, Essex-street, the Custom-house, Temple-bar, and Fleet-street are built, were a strand and slough, and there was a small harbour near the foot of Dame’s-gate, from whence archbishop Alan in 1534 (Waraei Annal. Regn. Hen. VIII. Ad an 1534. Hooker in Hollingsh. P. 92) took boat, intending to fly to England to avoid the fury of Thomas Fitzgerald, who had that year broken out into rebellion, and was a great enemy to the archbishop (She was driven on shore by contrary winds near Clontarf, from whence he went to a village called Artain to conceal himself for a time, but was discovered by his enemies, and the next morning dragged from his bed and most inhumanely murdered).

This slough was reclaimed, and the river imbanked with quays in the reign of king Charles II. (MS. Rob. Ware ut supra) and the council-chamber, and other structures being built there, it was thought necessary by the government, in regard the incumbrances daily increased by the growth of trade, to make another aperture in the city wall, which was done in the government of Arthur, earl of Essex in 1675, by demolishing Isod’s-tower, and in the room of it erecting a new gate, which then got the denomination of Essex -gate, as the new street leading from it, and the bridge soon after laid over the Liffey, were called Essex -street, and Essex -bridge in honour of that lord lieutenant.

Mr. Humphry Jervis (who was afterwards knighted, and served in the office of lord mayor in 1681) was one of the sheriffs; of the city when these works were undertaken, and promoted them with great zeal and activity, perhaps not without an eye to private interest, as he had a considerable leasehold estate on the north tide of the river, and the event has shewn that he was not mistaken in his reckoning. Essex -gate, at that time erected, has since been demolished.

The tower before mentioned under the name of Isold’s-tower, together with Chapel-izod, a village near the city, (and the same may be said of Isod’s-fort in the park) are reported by an historian (Stanihurst ibid. p. 23) ” to have taken their names from La-Beal-Isoud or the fair Isoud, daughter to Anguish (I know not what) king of Ireland, and that the tower was a cattle of pleasure for the kings to recreate themselves in.” But perhaps it would be nearer the truth to conjecture that these places were so called from the surname of Isod, some of whom yet remain in the county of Kilkenny.

Between Dame’s-gate and Isod’s-towers, stood another (Demolished in 1763; when Parliament-street was opened, in the middle of which it stood) tower (now covered with a** **private edifice.)

From Isod’s-tower the wall extended N.N.W till it joined Newman’s-tower, by some (Robert Ware, MS.) called Buttevant’s-tower on the banks of the river, a little west of the place where Essex-bridge now stands; and from thence at no great distance it was annexed to another tower antiently called (It stood at the foot of Essex-bridge, and the remains of* *the foundation were taken away when that bridge was re-edified) Case’s-tower, but in latter times the Baker’s-tower, the same having been long held as the Baker’s-hall.

From Case’s-tower on the walls of the city, at the end of Fishamble-street stood a castle, that in different ages bore two names, viz. Proutefort’s-castle, and Fyan’s-castle, probably from some families of both those names, who either built or inhabited it. William Proutefort was a man of some figure in the reign of Edward III. and was appointed one of the commissioners (Rot. Tur. Birm. 32 Edw. III. No. 3.) for levying a subsidy granted by the communities of the counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry to Almarick de Sancto Amando, lord justice, for carrying on the war against the Irish enemies an. 1358.

Three of the Fyans bore the high offices of the city in the 15th and 16th centuries. For John Fyan was mayor in 1472 and 1479. Thomas Fyan was one of the sheriffs In 1540, and Richard Fyan was mayor in 1549 and 1564. It must be submitted to conjecture, whether the Proutefort or the Ryan before mentioned gave their respective names to this castle, by the latter of which namaes it was called in the year 1610, and by the former in 1678 (Robert Ware, MS), and was sometimes used as a state prison.

The Old Crane, a strong building, and for a time used as a custom-house, stood near the city walls between the Wood-quay and Merchant’s-quay, at the end of Wine-tavern-street, but seems to have been more modern than the towers and castles before mentioned, and to have been erected for other purposes than defence.

Part of this building remained till of late; and from thence the wall made in the time of Edward Bruce’s attempt stretched in a direct line along Merchant’s-quay, till it joined the Bridge-gate, Standing on the south side of the Old-bridge, which gave name to one of the most antient street in the city, called from thence Bridge-street, and afforded also another inlet into the city. This gate was not coeval with the bridge, which was built in the reign of king John, but was erected in the year 1316 against Bruce’s attempt.

It was placed between two turrets, furnished with a port-cullis, and ornamented with a publick clock (Robert Ware, MS.) for regulating the motions of market people homewards, which was set up in the year 1573, and seems to have been done from observations made on the conveniencies which three publick clocks (Annal. Q. Eliz. Engl. Imputer to sir Hames Ware, under the year 1560) set up in the year 1560, by Q. Elizabeth, afforded the citizens; namely, one at the castle, one in the city, and a third at St. Patrick’s church. This gate, having through age suffered great decays, was repaired (MS. ut supra} at considerable expence by that glorious queen; and at the same time her royal arms were erected, on the north tide thereof, fronting Oxmantown, and an inscription fixed thereon bearing date MDXCVIII.

From this gate the wall was continued on the west side of Bridge-street to another gate which stood between the south end of the said street and the lower end of New-row, near a place called by Stanihurst (Description of Ireland, p.22.) the Cucull or Cuckold’s-post. This gate supported (R. Ware, ut supra) with an arch a castle without turrets, and hath passed under three several names.

Some (Stanihurst) have called it Gormund-gate, from one Gormund, a Dane, who they suppose was the builder of it, and others (R. Ware) from Gormund, a Danish saint. But neither of these by hypotheses can be well supported; since the gate gave an entrance into the city, thro’ that part of the wall which was built in 1316, (Anno 1316 the city walls on the north ran close by St. Owen’s church and Wine-tavern-street; in which places were two gates (described in Cambden’s Irish Annals) and by the stones of St. Saviours, the friers predicants church; the mayor and citizens enlarged and built a new wall to the city from Newgate (from thence so called) to Ormond’s-gate, which stood at the foot of king John’s-bridge.) during the invasion of Edward Bruce, long after the extinction of the Danish power here. Others, with more probability, have called it Ormond, or Urmond-gate; and this also is a conjecture of Stanihurst (R. Ware), who adds, that it took the name from some earl of Omond, who issued out of it and defeated a body of Irish, who were approaching to assault the city, and that in memory of the action, the gate was from thence so called and this indeed seems* *to be countenanced by the name which the place at this day bears, being called in Irish, Geara na Earlagh, or the Earls-gate. The place where it stood is now called Wormwood-gate.

From Ormond-gate the wall stretched up a steep hill to Newgate; but between both stood a square tower within the verge of the marshalsea of the four courts, commonly called the Black-dog (R. Ware), from the sign of a Talbot there hung up. This tower was till towards the end of the 17th century called Brown’s-castle, not in regard of any antient founder, but of a later proprietor, sir Richard Browne, who kept his mayoralty therein in the years 1614, 1615 and 1620.

Newgate was antiently, and still is, made use of for the custody of the worst sort of criminals. It was built in a square form, and had a tower at each corner; but upon the reparation of it in the time of the usurpation (R. Ware) the two towers that looked towards the city were taken down, the other two next to Cut-purse-row are still remaining. It has been repaired and altered not many years since, and a commodious passage for foot people laid out on the south side of it.

Whether it was called Newgate as being, the last built of the city gates, or from Newgate in London, must be left uncertain but it appears from undoubted records to have borne that name upwards of 500 years; of which the foundation charter of the hospital of St. John without Newgate, made by Alured le Palmer about the year 1188, and the confirmation thereof by pope Clement III. are pregnant evidences. It appears also by a record (Pat. 22 Hen.) in the tower of London, that one Daniel, prior of the hospital of St. John without Newgate, obtained the royal assent to the bishoprick of Emly on the 8th of April 1238; tho’ the see being at that time filled by one Christian, Daniel came short of his expectation. Among the plea rolls in Birmingham-tower (Rot. Fin. Berm. tur de an. 35 Hen. III) there is an instance also that comes near the point, where Walter, prior of St. John’s without Newgate, recovered by fine against Richard Bretnagh, the lands of Coulkoyl in the county of Limerick, before the justices itinerant at Limerick in trinity term, 35 Hen. III. i.e. 1251.

A* *good part of the old walls of the city is to be seen at the Market that nearly adjoins to Newgate.

From Newgate the wall was carried S.E. along the rere of Back-lane, to another aperture in it at St. Nicholas’s-gate, and in this extension supported three towers; the first of which was called the Watch-tower (Ms. Ut supra), placed near Newgate, where ordinarily a sentry flood heretofore to guard the prisoners therein confined from which circumstance it got its name. The second tower was in shape octangular, but was usually called the Hanging-tower, from a propension or leaning posture it had towards the suburbs. The third of these towers flood between the Hanging-tower and St. Nicholas’s-gate, and was called sometimes the Round-tower, from its figure, and sometimes St. Francis’s-tower, from its position opposite to the garden of the Franciscan friery, which is now all covered with buildings.

From St. Nicholas-gate the bounds of the city began to be contracted, and the walls were carried N.E. at the back of a mill-race in Bride’s-alley, where a proportion of them is vet to be seen on the south side of Rose-lane, till they extended to another opening at Pole-Gate, or rather Fool-gate, from a confluence of water which settled in this hollow, and was often troublesome to passengers, till a bridge was thrown over it, which was repaired (R. Stanihurst’s Description of Ireland in Holingshed, p. 23.) by Nicholas Stanihurst about the year 1544. In latter times this gate has been called St. Werburgh’s-gate, in regard to its situation at the south end of a street of that name, dividing the same from Bride’s-street or St. Bridget’s-street. In equi-distance between Nicholas-gate and Pole-gate stood antiently a tower called Geneville’s-tower (R. W. ut supra), near adjoining to a building called after the tower Geneville’s-inn, both which are supposed to have borrowed their names from sir Henry-Geneville, whose property they were, and whose wife, Maud Lacy, died in Dublin in the year 1302.

From Pole-gate the wall proceeded in pretty near a straight line till it terminated with the cattle at Birmingham-tower, a little beyond a small tower which stood on the city wall, in the room of which was afterwards erected (Ibid.) a little building projecting out of Hoey’s-alley; and here a good part of the city wall is yet to be seen.

Antiently there was a small gate hereabouts, that gave an entrance into the city from Sheep-street to Castle-street, called St. Austin’s-gate, not (as some have imagined) (R. W. ut supra) as it opened a passage to a monastery of Augustin-friers, which, to support their notion, they mistakingly place in Castle-street. For that religious house did not lie within the city, but without the walls northward of Dame’s-street, almost opposite to the end of George’s-lane, where some foot-steps of the ruins of it were lately to be seen at the bottom of Crow-street; and it appears also by a fiat (An. 34 Hen. VIII. July 10.) in the Rolls-office, that the site and possessions lying near the city, were granted to Walter Tyrrel to hold in fee by knight’s service, and six shillings and a penny rent; the heirs of which Tyrrel assigned them to Nicholas viscount Netterville, by whom they were assigned to William Crow, whose family (for what we know) enjoy them to this day.

But this gate took the name of Austin’s-gate, either as it was dedicated to that saint, or, as it afforded a passage to the friers of that order to attend the citizens in their nightly confessions and other duties, when the principal gates of the city were kept close shut and guarded. Before the building of the cattle, the wall of the city ran up short of the same, and to the west of it, until it joined Dame’s-gate, and much of the foundation of the old walls has been from time to time discovered in digging the earth for laying the foundations of buildings in that tract.

Having thus surrounded the city, and traced the antient fortifications of it, we shall close the account with an act of parliament (Rot. Canc. 14 Edw. IV) passed in the 14th year of king Edward IV. wherein it is recited “That king Henry VI. had on the 6th of February in the 33rd year of his reign granted to four citizens of Dublin six pounds out of the fee farm rent of the city for 40 years for the reparation of the walls and gates thereof, and that king Edward IV. on the 23rd of June in the 4th year of his reign, had granted to four other citizens 20 marks for 40 years out of the said fee farm for the fame purposes and all the said citizens being dead, it was enacted that the mayor, bailiffs, and citizens should have and retain annually in their hands the said six pounds, and 20 marks during the remaining years, to be employed on the walls and gates of the city. Provided the said act be not prejudicial to Thomas Kelly, prior of the dominicans of Dublin, as to 10 marks granted to him for life out of the said fee farm.

To Chapter IV. Harris Contents.