Poolbeg Lighthouse and the South Wall Extension, Irishtown, Sandymount, Beggardbush and Baggotrath

CHAPTER II

The Poolbeg Lighthouse and the South Wall Extension, Irishtown, Sandymount, Beggardbush and Baggotrath.

The maintenance of the South Wall extension beyond the Pigeonhouse, alluded to in the previous chapter, proved to be enormously expensive owing to the rapid corrosion of the timber foundations by the salt water, and besides, the structure was insufficient in bulk to shield the harbour effectually from the force of the waves when the wind blew from the south or south-east. Great quantities of the loose and shifting sands of the South Bull were constantly being blown or drifted across the breakwater into the river bed, materially interfering with its navigability, and seriously affecting the trade of the port.

It was accordingly resolved to replace the wooden piles on this portion by a solid stone breakwater of massive proportions, and so the Poolbeg Lighthouse was begun in 1761, and finished seven years later. The present granite causeway was then gradually built inwards towards the city until it had joined the earlier portion of the structure. In many places along the south side of the wall may still be seen remains of the original wooden piles.

At certain exposed points, to protect it from the violence of the sea, the sides were formed of blocks of granite, dovetailed into each other, so that no single block could be detached without breaking, and the intermediate space between the sides was filled with gravel for about half the height, above which great blocks of granite were laid in cement. The wall when thus constructed formed a solid causeway 32 feet wide at the base and tapering to 28 feet at the top.

The only place where these original dimensions now remain is from the outfall of the Pembroke Main Drain to the Poolbeg Lighthouse. Towards the eastern end where the water is deep, the wall had to be strengthened by iron clamps and bolts, while approaching the Lighthouse, so great is the airy of the sea in a south-easterly storm, that it was found necessary to raise it some five feet higher, and to protect it for a considerable distance, by an additional breakwater of huge boulders on the outside. How necessary this was, is shown by the rounded condition of many of these great rocks, which are often tossed about like pebbles during easterly gales, and in some instances cast up on the wall itself. Even with all these precautions to ensure the stability of the wall, repairs are constantly necessary.

Few townsfolk have any conception of what a south-easterly storm means along the coast, and I would strongly recommend anyone who is not afraid of rough weather, to select a day when there is a gale from this point, and arrange to reach the Pigeonhouse about high tide; it would be inadvisable to go further, but ample view can be obtained therefrom of the action of the sea along the wall.

Gerard Boate, writing in 1652, gives the following quaint description of the Port of Dublin: “Dublin haven hath a bar in the mouth, upon which at high flood and spring-tide there is fifteen and eighteen feet of water, but at the ebbe and nep-tide but six. With an ordinary tide you cannot go to the key of Dublin with a ship that draws five feet of water, but with a spring-tide you may go up with ships that draw seven or eight feet. Those that go deeper cannot go nearer Dublin than the Rings-end, a place three miles distant from the bar, and one from Dublin. This haven almost all over falleth dry with the ebbe, as well below Rings-end as above it, so as you may go dry foot round about the ships which lye at anchor there, except in two places, one at the north side, half way betwixt Dublin and the bar, and the other at the south side not far from it. In these two little creeks (whereof the one is called the pool of Clontaff and the other Poolbeg) it never falleth dry, but the ships which ride at an anchor remain ever afloat; because at low water you have nine or ten feet of water there. This haven, besides its shallowness, hath yet another great incommodity, that the ships have hardly any shelter there for any winds, not only such as come out of the sea, but also those which come off from the land, especially out of the south-west; so as with a great south-west storm the ships run great hazards to be carried away from their anchor and driven into the sea; which more than once bath come to pass, and particularly in the beginning of November, An. 1637, when in one night ten or twelve barks had. that misfortune befaln them, of the most part whereof never no news hath been heard since.

The Pool of Clontaff is now called The Pool, and the other the Poolbeg, or little pool.

Poolbeg, which lies in the channel between the Pigeonhouse and the Lighthouse, was in former times a recognised anchorage for vessels. In the accompanying reproduction of an old print of Dublin Bay, about 170 years old, a fleet of large fishing vessel is is represented riding at anchor there.

The Poolbeg Lighthouse is a handsome and conspicuous feature in the bay, in which it occupies an almost central position, though its picturesque appearance has been somewhat marred since it was painted black by the Port authorities some twenty years ago. It is nearly equidistant from Dublin, Kingstown, and Howth, and commands extensive views of the whole shores of the bay) with an unbroken panorama of the mountains on the south. Howth with its heather-clad hills, its bright green fields and rugged reaches of sea cliffs, looks particularly attractive from this point.

An interesting effect of the isolated position of this spot which can hardly escape the notice of the casual visitor, is the impressive silence which prevails here on a calm summer’s day, though surrounded on all sides by evidences of bustle and activity. Occasionally the stillness is broken by the rhythmical beat of some steamer gliding gracefully past, as she leaves or enters the port, or at intervals one may faintly distinguish the whistle of a far off train so softened by distance as to mingle with the cry of the sea birds and the gentle plash of the water against the rocks.

The lighthouse when originally constructed, presented an entirely different appearance from what it does at the present time. It was not so high as the existing structure, it sloped much more rapidly towards the top, and was surmounted by an octagonal lantern with eight heavy glass windows. A stone staircase with an iron balustrade led to the second storey, where an iron gallery surrounded the whole building. The alteration to the present form was made in the early part of last century, and was, beyond doubt, a decided improvement so far as the appearance of the structure is concerned.

The foundations consist of immense blocks of stone and cement, bound together with massive iron bands, interwoven so as to form great cages; and the base thus formed is strengthened by sloping buttresses all round.

Returning along the Wall, we take the turn on the left along the Rathmines and Pembroke Main Drain embankment, which has reclaimed from the sea a considerable tract now being laid out as a public park.

The most conspicuous object in this neighbourhood is the belfry tower of St. Matthew’s Church, before alluded to, which is still in good preservation and is thickly mantled with ivy.

The strand at Irishtown was at one time noted for its cockles and shrimps, the shrimps being found in great quantities at certain states of the tide, but after the severe winter of 1741, known as “The hard frost,” they completely disappeared and never since returned to this coast. The cockles, however, still remain for those who have the courage to eat them, and occasionally yield a rich harvest to the professional cockle pickers. Going to Sandymount on Sunday to pick cockles was a favourite amusement of the Dublin folk a hundred years ago.

Cranfield’s Baths, for many years a well-known institution in this neighbourhood, were established by Richard Cranfield, who died at Irishtown in 1859.

In former times the tract along the sea from Ringsend to Sandymount was known as Scal’d Hill, or Scald Hill. In the middle of the 18th century there was a village called “Brickfield Town” on the site now occupied by Sandymount Green, deriving its name from Lord Merrion’s brickfields, which extended along the shore from there to Merrion. A well-known inn called “The Conniving House” then stood where the modern Seafort Avenue West, meets the shore. It was a famous old hostelry, noted for its dinners of fish and its excellent ale, and is referred to as follows in *The Lzfe of John Buncl4 Esq. *(Thomas Amory), Vol. I., p. 87: “I set forward (1st May, 1725), and in five days. arrived from the western extremity of Ireland at a village called Rings-end that lies on the Bay of Dublin. Three days I rested there, and at the Conniving House, and then got my horses on board a ship that was ready to sail, and bound for the land I was born in, I mean Old England … The Conniving House (as the gentlemen of Trinity called it in my time and long after) was a little publichouse, kept by Jack Macklean, about a quarter of a mile beyond Rings-end, on the top of the beach, within a few yards of the sea. Here we used to have the finest fish at all times; and in the season, green peas and all the most excellent vegetables. The ale here was always extra-ordinary, and everything the best; which with its delightful situation, rendered it a delightful place of a summer’s evening. Many a delightful evening have I passed in this pretty thatched house with the famous Larry Grogan, who played on the bagpipes extreme well; dear Jack Lattin, matchless on the fiddle, and the most agreeable of companions and many other delightful fellows who went in the days of their youth to the shades of eternity. When I think of them and their evening songs *‘We will go to Johnny Macklean *½ *to *try if *his ale be good or not,’ & *c., and that years and infirmities begin to oppress me, what is life!”

Sandymount, though now a populous suburb of the metropolis, is remembered by many old people as an isolated village standing around Sandymount Green. In the early part of last century about 1810 to 1820 it came into great favour as a watering place; there was a well-equipped hotel here, and a range of lodging-houses was built at the north-eastern side of the Green, continuous with Newgrove Avenue, for the accommodation of visitors. The extent to which it was patronised in consequence of its fine strand, pretty beach and depth of wave at full-tide, excited the ambition of the residents to make it an aristocratic resort, and in order to attain the desired degree of exclusiveness, the fee charged for bathing there was 2d., which, of course, restricted it to the nobility and gentry, the common people betaking themselves to Irishtown, where the fee was only 1d., and where there was a larger array of bathing boxes with plainer accommodation.

At the corner of Sandymount Avenue, on the main road to Kingstown, was an inn and snack-house called “The Bird House” - a cosy thatched tavern where travellers arriving late in the evening sometimes stayed the night rather than risk the remainder of the journey to town in the dark.

On the 21st of April, 1826, the Rev. George Wogan was murdered in his house in Spafield Place, off Sandymount Avenue. The murder created a great sensation in Dublin, as the victim was widely respected and known. The murderers were duly hanged, not for the murder, however, but as the result of conviction for a highway robbery in the same neighbourhood.

Up to about 1840 there was a famous concern known as Haig’s Distillery on the banks of the Dodder immediately eastward of the present Herbert Bridge, but I believe it had ceased working for several years prior to that date. It was approached from Haig’s Avenue and Watery Lane (now Lansdowne Road) by a stone weir across the river, and the buildings extended a considerable distance along the banks, surrounded by meadows and grass lands. This establishment had become notorious by reason of its frequent conflicts with the Revenue authorities, and the audacity with which its operations were conducted both by day and night. Many strange stories were told as to encounters with excise officers in its earlier years, and the rumour was current in the neighbourhood that several of these unpopular functionaries had mysteriously “disappeared” in the establishment. The proprietor undoubtedly fought the Revenue both physically and legally by every means that his ingenuity could devise, but being beaten, he had to succumb. in the end, and his concern was ultimately dismantled. A local builder purchased the old buildings some years afterwards, and it was understood that he had effected an excellent bargain, as the debris included a great quantity of copper tubing and machinery. The stones of the old building were utilised in laying down the foundations of the two roads constructed across the distillery fields - viz., Herbert Road and Newbridge Avenue.

Watery Lane, now represented by the portion of Lansdowne Road between Pembroke Road and Shelbourne Road, was little better than a wet ditch with water constantly oozing out from its mud banks, and was passable only by means of a line of stepping stones laid along it.

Lying immediately inland from the coast, though no longer designated by their ancient titles, are the localities formerly known as Beggarsbush and Baggotrath, now almost entirely merged in the suburbs. In the old print of Dublin Hay, already alluded to, which appears to have been sketched from a poskion somewhere near the present Haddington Road, the origin of the name of Beggarsbush is clearly shown, for there, prominently in the foreground, is the bush under which the beggars of that day used to find a temporary shelter before descending on the metropolis. ‘bree beggars appear in the picture, two of them - man and a woman - of tattered and disreputable aspect, are standing up, looking towards the city, and apparently in consultation as to the route to be pursued in their campaign. A third, of more placid temperament, is reclining at ease in this arboreal beggars’ rest, and to all appearances, waiting, like Mr. Micawber, for something to turn up.

Many of the worthies who used to avail themselves of this friendly shelter were doubtless, when opportunity offered, highwaymen, as the neighbourhood had acquired an evil reputation in this respect, and numerous robberies are recorded in the newspapers of the time as having taken place there.

In the print referred to, not one building of any description is shown between Beggarsbush and Ringsend, the intervening space being open country through which the Dodder flowed over a wide tract of waste and slob land. Judging by the relative positions of the various objects in the picture, the original “bush” must have stood a little to the north of the modern Beggarsbush Barracks, though Duncan’s map of. the County Dublin, made about ninety years ago, assigns the name of Beggarsbush to a hamlet or group of houses which stood at the intersection of what are now known as Lansdowne Road and Shelbourne Road.

The view in the picture at first sight appears unduly extensive, ~ and it is probably somewhat exaggerated so far as the height of the standpoint is concerned, but even allowing for only a few feet of elevation where the “bush” stood, a very considerable view of the Bay must have been obtained there from. Even at the present day, with all the buildings intervening, the higher portions of Howth Head are clearly visible from the middle of Haddington Road, opposite the barracks.

In the early part of last century down to about 1820, or thereabouts there stood in a field at the spot now occupied by the north-eastern corner of Beggarsbush Barracks, an old vaulted building in ruins, covered with a dense growth of ivy, nettles and brambles, called Le Fevre’s Folly, which was utilised as a refuge and point of reconnaissance by highwaymen, robbers and smugglers, then abounding in the neighbourhood, as the ruins commanded a view along the five roads radiating from this point.

The inhabitants of all the adjacent localities Ringsend, Irishtown, Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, and Sandymount, seldom ventured out of doom at night time without being fully armed, as they were almost entirely dependant upon their own arrangements for the protection of themselves and their homes, the whole district at that time being in a most lawless state, and burglaries and highway robberies of almost nightly occurrence.

The only house of any note in the neighbourhood at that time was Pembroke Lodge, which now in its old age, may still be seen a few paces from the railway bridge, on the northern side of Bath Avenue, then Londonbridge Road. It will be readily recognised by its great projecting eaves, owing to which it was popularly known as “The Umbrella House.”

This house, about 1825, was occupied as a residence by the proprietor of adjoining chemical works which covered the whole area bounded by the Dodder, Bath Avenue and Ringsend Road. Isolated as it was, and containing the ordinary valuables to be found in a house of its size occupied by well-to-do people, it was naturally an object of much interest to the burgling fraternity. Attempts were frequently made to enter the premises and on one occasion the inmates, immediately before retiring, observed an ill-looking individual peering over the wall and evidently reconnoitring with a view to a night attack. Thus put on their guard, they received the expected visitors on their arrival with discharges of slugs from blunderbusses, causing an immediate retreat. A number of burgling implements were left behind by the robbers in their hurried flight, and a trail of blood was traced next morning the whole way to Halpin’s Pool, Ringsend, where it ceased. Two familiar faces were missed from the gang after this occurrence, and it was supposed that the party dropped the dead bodies of their comrades into this pool.

The whole incident doubtless attracted little notice at the time, having been but one of many such, as will be seen by reference to newspapers of the period, and it is related here merely for the purpose of illustrating the extraordinary condition of lawlessness then prevailing in the immediate neighbourhood of the city a condition now to be found only in some wild mining camp or semi-organised community.

When the delta or slobland formed at the confluence of the Swan Water, the Dodder and the Liffey was embanked and reclaimed in 1792, it became known by the name of New Holland, possibly on account of the desperadoes resorting there, the original New Holland having been a convict colony. This old name has now almost passed out of living memory, but is commemorated in the names “New Holland” in Newbridge Avenue, and “New Holland Lodge,” until recently in Bath Avenue.

The ancient district of Baggotrath was an extensive one, and included a considerable portion of the lands. on which are now built the south-eastern part of the city, and the adjoining suburbs of Donnybrook and Pembroke. It derives its name from the family of Bagot or Bagod, who came into possession of the Manor of Baggotrath in the 13th century, and soon afterwards erected thereon a castle which they occupied as their residence. The Castle of Baggotrath stood on the ground now occupied by 44 and 46 Upper Baggot Street, down to the early part of last century, when it was taken down on the extension of the suburbs in this direction.

*Lewis’s Dublin Guide, *published in 1787, gives the following particulars in regard to this old ruin: - “The upper part, which threatened immediate destruction to all who should approach its base, was in 1785, taken down; and what small fragment of the tower was left was entirely filled up with stones, earth and other matters, and the whole closed at the top, so that it is now almost as solid and compact as a rock, and may bid defiance to the shocks of rime.”

This castle played an important part in the Battle of Rathmines (see Index), where in August, 1649, the Royalist forces under command of the Marquess, afterwards Duke of Ormonde, were decisively defeated by the Parliamentary garrison of Dublin, commanded by Colonel Michael Jones.

For a long time after the battle, the ruin was a resort of desperadoes and highwaymen, and was considered a dangerous place to pass after dusk.

The office of Governor of Baggotrath Castle, though a sinecure from a remote period, was filled from time to time until the Union, when this appointment, with a number of similar ones, was abolished, and a commutation of the salary paid to Sir John (afterwards Lord) de Blaquiere.

The following authorities have been consulted in the preparation of this chapter: - Blacker’s *Sketches of the Parishes of Booterstown and Donnybrook *Gerard Boate’s *Natural History of Ireland; St. Catherine’s Bells, *by W. T. Meyler; Rocque’s and Duncan’s *Maps of the County of Dublin; *Wakeman’s *Old Dublin; *Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh’s *History of Dublin; *and *The Scandinavian. Kingdom of Dublin, *by Charles Haliday.

To Chapter 3. To Neighbourhood Index. Home.