Ranelagh, Rathgar, Templeogue, Bohernabreena.

CHAPTER XVII

Rathmines and Rathgar, Templeogue and its Spa, Boharnabreena and Ballinascorney Gap.

Portobello Bridge, which connects the city with the populous districts of Rathmines and Rathgar, was the scene of a terrible tragedy on the night of the 6th April, 1861. One of the “Favourite” omnibuses, returning from Rathgar to Nelson’s Pillar, where it was due at 9 o’clock, p.m., stopped in the middle of the bridge to allow a passenger to alight. when the driver endeavoured to re-start the horses, they found some difficulty in proceeding, and backed slightly towards the Rathmines side.

The old bridge being very steep, he then turned the horses’ heads eastward so as to take the incline at an angle, but they still continued to back in spite of the driver’s efforts, and at last forced the heavy vehicle round in a semicircle against the wooden paling which then stood between the road and the canal lock on the south-western side of the bridge.

The frail paling gave way under the heavy weight, and the vehicle rolled over into the lock on end, with the door underneath. The horses falling between the omnibus and the bridge, by their weight on the traces, pulled the front of the vehicle down on its wheels, and thus caused it to right itself. There were only a few feet of water in the lock, and no difficulty should have arisen in extricating the passengers, had not the lock-keeper turned on all the upper sluices in the hope of floating the bus, with the result that in the darkness and confusion, the passengers, six in number, were all drowned, the driver alone being rescued.

In a few moments when the mistake was realised by the spectators, the upper sluices were closed and the lower ones opened, speedily emptying the lock, but it was then too late, and the passengers when taken out were all dead.

Among those who perished on this occasion was Mr. Michael Gunn, father of the late Messrs. John and Michael Gunn, the founders and proprietors of the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.

About the beginning of the last century, Rathmines was quite a rural neighbourhood, and was considered too far out of town for residential purposes, except for people who were in a position to keep vehicles for their own use.

Down to about 1820, Rathmines Road, from Portobello to Castlewood Avenue, was fenced on the eastern side by a ditch with thorn hedges at intervals, and the sentry box of the night watchman was usually about half way, while the only houses on the road were Mount Anthony and Williams Park on the western side. Castlewood Avenue was then a narrow country lane, without a house of any description, leading to “The Bloody Fields” (near the modern Palmerston Road), and Cullenswood Avenue, now Oakley Road, was a rustic avenue with a turnstile at the upper end opening into the meadows and cornfields south of Dunville Avenue. The older houses on the southern side of Dunville Avenue are among the earliest built in this neighbourhood.

At this period Rathgar Road was not properly finished, although it had been laid out some years previously, and the usual route from Rathmines to Terenure or Roundtown was by Upper, or as it was then called, Old Rathmines, and Highfield Road.

Rathmines village commenced opposite Rathgar Road, and in addition there was the portion known as “The Chains,” which occupied the site where the Belfast Bank and surrounding buildings now stand. “The Chains” were so called, because a number of dilapidated shanties at this point were enclosed by chains hung from stone pillars such as now surround Stephen’s Green. These old rookeries were really an unsightly and insanitary slum, and were swept away some twenty-five years ago, much to the advantage of the neighbourhood. The Swan Water, now almost entirely a subterraneous river, flows past this point, and has given name to the avenue known as “Swanville Place.”

To connect Rathmines with Harold’s Cross, Leinster Road was opened up about 1835 through what was then Mowld’s Farm, and the old farmhouse, which stood on the northern side of the road close to Rathmines Road, was taken down about 1840. Its site is, I believe, occupied by the two stucco houses near the Rathmines end of Leinster Road.

Close to where is now the western end of Leinster Road there was, about eighty years ago, Clandaube Bridge, by which the Harold’s Cross road spanned the Swan Water, then an open river, flowing through the fields.

In Wright’s *Guide to the County of Wicklow (1822), *this locality is referred to as - “the village of Rathmines, chiefly inhabited by invalids, in consequence of the supposed purity and wholesome quality of its atmosphere.” This should be comforting to the modem inhabitants.

The ancient Castle of Rathmines, originally an extensive building erected by Sir George Radcliffe in the 17th century, stood on the site occupied by the house known as “The Orchards,” Palmerston Park, and when Rocque constructed his map of the County Dublin in 1776, was the country residence of Lord Chief Justice Yorke. On Duncan’s map of the County Dublin (1821) it appears as “Rathmines School,” and in *The Dublin Penny Journal *of 1833 it is described as “an irregular, uninteresting building, so far modernised as to have the appearance of an old whitewashed farmhouse. It is now occupied as a boarding-house for invalids, and unfortunately is seldom empty.” The entrance was opposite the end of Highfield Road, beside what is now the terminus of the Palmerston Park tram line.

The old Castle of Rathmines must not be confounded with the modern edifice of that name in Upper Rathmines, which, owing to its recent origin, possesses no historic interest.

The Rathgar Road was constructed early in the last century, and for some years remained without a single building to relieve its monotonous straightness or interrupt the view of the open pastoral country through which it passed. At its upper end, on the older portion leading from Highfield Road to Terenure, there then stood a few thatched cottages and an inn, the latter a favourite hostelry for country people going into and out of town by that route. This group of houses became in time known as “The Thatch,” and even at the present day this name, though locally forgotten owing to the many changes and shifting population, is still the designation by which the place is best known to the older country folk in the southern part of the county.

The Cusack family became resident proprietors in this locality in 1609, and remained in possession of the lands of Rathgar for about a century. The extensive ruins of their old castle or mansion survived up to a late period in the 18th century, and were visited in 1782 by Austin Cooper, the well-known antiquarian, and described in his “Notebook.”

According to Rocque’s Map of the County (1776), which, however, is so inaccurate in parts as to render identification difficult, it would seem that these ruins stood on the ground immediately south of the upper end of Rathgar Road, and the Ordnance Survey Map of 1837 shows that there was then near this point a house called “Rathgar Castle Cottage” - a name which was probably intended to commemorate the site of this old mansion, whose ruins may have survived within the memory of the builder.

Up to about thirty years ago a tradition remained among some of the older residents, that the castle had stood in this position.

A roadway, now represented by Rathgar Avenue, probably a private avenue in its original form, led to Rathgar Castle from the Harold’s Cross Road.

Geoghegan, the author of *The Monks of Kilcrea, *probably either saw the ruins himself or obtained a description of them from someone who had seen them, when he wrote:-

“Rathgar, upon thy broken wall,

Now grows the lusmore rank and tall

Wild grass upon thy hearthstone springs,

And ivy round thy turret clings;

The night-owls through thy arches sweep,

Thy moat dried up, thy towers a heap,

Blackened, and charr’d and desolate

-The traveller marvels at thy fate!”

The Castles of Rathmines and Rathgar must both have suffered considerable injury at the Battle of Rathmines, having been occupied and defended by parties of fugitives from Lord Inchiquin’s portion of the Royalist army. This battle is fully described in the succeeding chapter.

In March, 1798, a brutal murder took place at Rathgar House, which stood on the site now occupied by Oaklands, Highfield Road. The gate-lodge of that house, situated in what was then a very lonely neighbourhood, was attacked in the middle of the night by three men, who having some grudge against the occupant, a gardener, after some ineffectual resistance on his part, forced their way into the lodge and murdered him. The story of the murder was told in the *Freeman’s Journal *of March 17th, 1798, in the following words:-“Yesterday morning, about two o’clock, a numerous banditti, said to be forty in number, attacked the country house of Charles Farren, Esq., which is situated near Rathmines Road, adjoining the avenue that leads to Rathfarnham Road. They first entered the gardener’s lodge, in which was a poor man, in the service of Mr. Farren, named Daniel Carroll, who giving what resistance he could to the barbarians, they cruelly put him to death, and which we since understand was the chief purpose for which they came to that place.”

The murderers were tried, found guilty, and publicly hanged at the cross-roads of Terenure, where the Rathmines tram now stops The *Freeman’s Journal *of November 1st, 1798, gives the following description of the execution: -“Yesterday were executed on Rathfarnham road, at the entrance of the avenue leading to Rathgar and Rathmines, Kelly, Rooney, and O’Donnell, who had been gardeners to gentlemen in that neighbourhood, and had perpetrated a most barbarous murder on a poor, inoffensive man, named Carroll, carter to Charles Farren, Esq.

“The above malefactors were conducted from Kilmainham Jail along the Circular Road, and through Rathmines, to the place of execution by the High Sheriff of the County of Dublin, accompanied by troops of the Rathfarnham and Crumlin Cavalry. The peasantry who were spectators seemed to have no pity for them, and believed they were guilty, though these criminals denied the fact. The bloody shirt of poor Carroll, who had been murdered, was placed in front of the cart before them on the way to the place of execution. Just before they were turned off, Kelly and Rooney shook hands; the former appeared in much trepidation. After hanging the usual time, they were cut down, and their bodies conveyed to Surgeons’ Hall for dissection, consonant to the letter of the law.”

The “numerous banditti” described as participators in this crime existed only in the imagination of the prisoner Kelly, who was Mr. Farren’s gardener; and it would appear that after the murder, the ruffians who had been engaged in it, plundered the wine cellar and carried off a quantity of liquor to their homes. The origin of the foul deed seems to have been a complaint made against Kelly to his employer by the murdered man, Carroll, whom Kelly when slaying him, described as “an Orangeman.”

Mr. Farren was Deputy Clerk of the Pleas in the Court of Exchequer.

The imposing presence of “the Rathfarnham and Crumlin Cavalry,” troops of which it is stated formed the escort in the procession, was probably considered necessary to overawe any of the “peasantry” of Rathmines and Rathgar who might have been sympathisers or friends of the condemned men, as the crime attracted a great deal of attention in the locality, and appears to have been, to some extent at least, tinged by the heated political feelings of the period.

It should be observed that the route of the procession was by Rathmines Road, Upper Rathmines, Highfield Road - past the scene of the murder - to the cross-roads at Terenure, Rathgar Road not being then in existence.

The whole occurrence with its incidental surroundings affords an interesting glimpse of the methods of justice which prevailed at the close of the 18th century, as well as of the condition, at that time, of the now populous and flourishing suburbs of Rathmines and Rathgar.

Adjoining Rathgar is the village of Roundtown, the name of which has, in recent years, being almost entirely superseded by “Terenure,” the ancient title of the locality. The name “Roundtown” is of modern date, and evidently originated with the circle of small cottages close to the cross-roads. From this point we follow the route of the Blessington Steam Tramway along a straight and somewhat uninteresting road to Templeogue, a village of small cottages on the roadside, beyond which the country is more open and the mountains come into view.

The route from this point should properly be across Templeogue Bridge to the left, but in order to visit the old ford across the Dodder, used before the bridge was built, it will be necessary to continue along the tram road for about a quarter of a mile further, where the old road will be seen sloping down to the river bed. Templeogue Bridge was not built until about 1800, and before that time, all vehicles going to or coming from the neighbourhood of Firhouse, had to ford the river here, which was, however, at that time much wider, its bed having been subsequently restricted by the Drainage Commissioners. Crossing here by the stepping-stones, we enter an ancient roadway, whose moss-grown, ivy-clad walls attest its antiquity, and after crossing a stile, we emerge upon the main road to Firhouse.

If desired, before crossing the river, a visit may be paid to Spawell House, a quaint, old-fashioned dwelling, with numerous windows and high chimneys, on the grounds of which, as the name indicates, is situated the once famous spa of Templeogue, where the wealth, the beauty and the fashion of Dublin were wont to assemble 180 years ago. The entrance to the grounds is now by an iron gate on the Tallaght road, but was then opposite the old church of Templeogue, and a long avenue of stately elms led up to the house. The Dodder did not then flow so close to the place, a long bend in its course having been straightened by the Drainage Commissioners in 1846. The site of the spa is marked by a semicircular amphitheatre, where there was formerly a large whitethorn tree that has gone the way of its companions, the elms, but a circular stone seat which surrounded it still remains. The spa is now covered over, a slight depression in the ground marking the actual spot, and the water flows underground to the bank of the river adjoining, where it can be seen and tasted if desired, but its chalybeate qualities for which it was once so noted have entirely disappeared. According to Dr. Rutty, the naturalist, it lost its properties as a spa between the years 1749 and 1751.

This place was, in its hey-day, of such fashionable importance that there was a weekly paper of eight pages, called The *Templeogue Intelligencer, *devoted to the doings and frolickings of the spa drinkers, which it often chronicled in what would be considered very plain speaking nowadays. A few numbers of this curious production are preserved in the *Haliday Pamphlets *in the Royal Irish Academy, as also a ballad, of which the following verses are extracts:-

THE TEMPLEOGUE BALLAD).

(Printed at the Cherry-tree, Rathfarnham, 1730, and dedicated to the worthy Manager, Mr. Benson.)

To the tune of “To you fair ladies now at hand.”

“Ye Dublin ladies that attend

This place of mirth and fame,

My song or praise or discommend,

As you approve my theme;

‘Tis you that make the poet sing,

The subject’s but a trivial thing.

With a fal, lal la, &c.

“Those damsels that were used of late

To rise when some had dined,

Now leave their toilets pleasing seat

For air that’s unconfined.

On Mondays rise by six, oh strange,

What stubborn hearts can’t music change!

With a fal, lal la, &c.

“The coxcombs that officious wait

With kettles in their hands,

And walk about from seat to seat

To see who ‘tis commands,

If smiles wont pay for all their pain,

Another time the rest they’ll gain.

With a fal, lal Ia, &c.

“My brother bard, whose honest heart

Still props our falling state,

And strives with judgement and with art,

T’ avert impending fate;

Who speaks so much, so little gains,

Just honour claims for all his pains.

With a fal, lal la, &c.

“To him, O Templeogue, is due

Thy praise and fame renowned,

Had he not been thy patron true,

Thy well had not been found;

Thy waters might have silent sprung,

Nor yet by him or me be sung.

With a fal, lal la, &c.

“Ye Dublin Citts, whose thoughtless souls

Incline ye to be blind,

Whose knowledge ends in brimming bowls,

These my last sayings, mind –

Where fops unnumbered pay their court,

Let not your pretty girls resort.

With a fal, lal la, &c.”

Nearly opposite Spawell House, on the other side of the river and close to the old ford, there was, in the eighteenth century, a small house beside the old road, known as Cherry-tree. Long afterwards it was enlarged and partially rebuilt, whereupon the name was altered to Cherryfield, its present designation. This, doubtless, was “The Cherry-tree, Rathfarnham,” where the above ballad was printed, Rathfarnham probably having been the postal address. The house can be seen from both the Firhouse and Tallaght roads.

The hour for assembling at the Spa was eight o’clock a.m., and as the journey from town occupied about an hour, its patrons had to rise soon after six, so that in addition to whatever benefits they derived from drinking the waters, it obliged them to keep regular hours and to go to bed early instead of spending half the night gambling and drinking, as was customary in these hard-living times.

Leaving Spawell and the memories of its vanished revels, we cross the Dodder by the old ford, already alluded to, leading to the Firhouse road, and next pass, on our left, Delaforde House, a roadside hostelry in the eighteenth century, but now a considerable distance from the road, which was altered about 100 years ago by a Mr. Bermingham, who bought the place, converted it into a private residence, and made the alteration to leave room for a lawn in front of his house. He laid out the grounds in ornamental fashion, and changed the old name of the place from Clandarrig to Springfield, which was in turn altered to its present name.

Immediately beyond Delaforde House is Firhouse, containing little of interest to notice, and in the course of another mile along a pleasant open road with Mount Pelier conspicuously in view on the left, we arrive at Oldbawn cross-roads, beside which a massive though unpicturesque bridge of one span crosses the Dodder. From Firhouse to near Bohernabreena, the river bed comprises whole acres of waste land, overgrown with brushwood and furze, and cut up into gravel pits.

After passing Oldbawn cross-roads the most prominent object in the view is Knockannavea Mountain - a long rounded hill, devoid of any striking features, but prettily interspersed with pastures, cornfields, and little white cottages peeping out from their sheltering groves of trees. The road now ascends considerably till it reaches Bohernabreena Chapel, picturesquely situated on an eminence over the nver.

From the Chapel a steep descent conducts us to Bohernabreena Bridge, formerly a picturesque structure, but disfigured in recent years by an iron water main laid across it, and by the consequent loss of its ivy, which gave it an appearance of respectable antiquity, although it is only about 80 years old. There is a remarkably pretty view from this bridge looking up the Glennasmole valley, with its wooded and furze-clad river slopes, the towering form of Seechon, and the little cottages nestling along the mountainside.

On the left is Friarstown House, in the grounds of which a little stream descends through a densely wooded glen, abounding in miniature grottoes and cascades, and having at its head an artificial lake.

After leaving the bridge, the road at once commences to ascend through Ballinascorney Gap, and we obtain a more extended view of Glennasmole and the adjoining mountains. At the far end of the valley is Kippure, on whose dark, deeply-furrowed slopes the infant Dodder, and its tributary streams, Slade Brook and Cot Brook, take their origin. The Dodder valley from here appears to great advantage, just before the slopes of Slievenabawnogue shut it off from the view. The road now rises continuously, amid surroundings which grow wilder and wilder as we ascend, while almost the whole way to the top can be heard the plash and murmur of a turbulent little stream that empties itself into the Dodder opposite Friarstown glen. As we approach the top of the road, to the right will be seen the track of an older one, forming a loop with the modem road, the alteration in its course having been made to graduate the ascent.

The view from the top, eastwards, includes only the tract visible between the hills of Knockannavinidee and Slievenabawnogue, comprising the southern portion of the Dublin suburbs, the whole South Wall from Ringsend to Poolbeg; beyond these, Howth, with the Bailey just shut out of view, Ireland’s Eye, Sutton with its bright rows of pretty villas; and to the left, Lambay Island. Nearer, and to the right, is Mount Pelier, surmounted by its conspicuous ruin.

At the top of the Gap, where the road branches off on the left to Kilbride Camp, is a granite cross, evidently of modern date, but of whose origin nothing is known in the neighbourhood. Some distance beyond the top will be seen, lower down on the opposite side of the valley, Ballinascorney House, pleasantly situated in the shelter of its woods, over which rises what is locally known as “The Black Hill.” This house was formerly called Dillon Lodge, having been erected as a shooting lodge by the Dillons of Belgard early in the eighteenth century. Some of Robert Emmet’s party took possession of it in 1803, to the great alarm of the inmates, who were, however, treated with the greatest courtesy by the party, and suffered no further injury than the consumption of the contents of their pantries. About 1860, Major Knox, the proprietor of the *Irish Times, *lived in this house, and gave numerous entertainments there, taking his guests out from town in a four-horse drag, and providing music for the festivities by a brass band organised by himself.

From the summit of the Gap the road winds along the northern slope of a fine open valley with the Black Hill and the towering form of Seechon on the left, and Knockannavinidee and Tallaght Hill on the right.

At a distance of ten miles from Terenure, by the route described herein, the road meets the Blessington Steam Tramway at Brittas Inn, whence the return journey to Terenure may be made by tram.

The following authorities were consulted in the preparation of this chapter: - Handcock’s *History and Antiquities of Tallaght; St. Catherine’s Bells, *by W. T. Meyler; Wakeman’s *Old Dublin, *Part II.; Petty’s, Rocque’s and Duncan’s *Maps *and the *Ordnance Survey Map of *1837.

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