Ballymount, the Talbots of Belgard, Clondalkin, the Corkagh Powder Mills

CHAPTER XXI

Leaving town by either Terenure or Crumlin, we make our way to Ballymount Lane, a continuation of the Kimmage or Crumlin road from Terenure. The lane commences at the cross-roads known as Oliver’s Corner, where we cross the old road from Dublin to Tallaght, used before the construction of the modern one from Terenure, and almost immediately we enter a low cutting, where formerly stood one of the green sand hills which gave name to this locality. Years of excavations have now left scarcely a trace of it, but some of its smaller companions may still be seen to the right, between us and the scattered village of Fox and Geese. After about a mile we meet another cross-roads, immediately beyond which, to the right, will be observed the ancient ivy-clad ruin of what was evidently a fortified entrance gate to Ballymount Castle. An avenue leads thence to a modern dwellinghouse named Ballymount, close to which, on the summit of a mound, is a small circular building, like the remains of a watch tower, built of limestone and brick, and enclosed by two concentric circumvallations. The appearance of the brickwork portions would suggest that they were repairs executed at periods long subsequent to the erection of the structure. This building, although commonly known as Ballymount Castle, cannot have been anything more than a watch tower of the ancient stronghold, which was probably taken down to supply materials for the erection of a dwelling house on its site. Some portions of an old stone stairs yet remain, and traces of the fosse that enclosed this once extensive establishment can still be discerned in places. About a hundred yards to the eastward is a massive wall, apparently of very ancient date, overhung with centuries’ growth of ivy.

Gabriel Beranger, who visited the place about 1780, describes the castle as having been an extensive one, and of considerable strength, as evidenced by its massive walls, towers, and outworks, which down to that time had remained intact. His description of it, as follows, is taken from Wilde’s Memoir of Gabriel Beranger: -“Hearing from some cottagers that there was at a little distance an enchanted cave, with subterraneous wards extending various ways for some miles, which some men at different times had tried to explore, but never returned, I was piqued by curiosity and begged to be shown the place.

“I found a vault of good masonry, about 8 feet high and 6 broad; descending this a few steps, I found at the end a square opening which had to be entered on all fours. I procured two candles, and on offering a small reward got a boy to follow me. For fear of mephitic vapours and suffocations I fastened a solid branch of tree to my cane, on which I stuck my candle, so that the light was about four *feet *before me.

“I then entered on my hands and feet, holding the light before me, followed by the boy with a candle in his hand. I went this way some yards, and then found two shafts - one leading to the right, the other to the left. I took the first, and advanced a good way, until I met with two more shafts and a very cadaverous smell. Here my boy began to be afraid, and I thrust my candle as far as I could in the two passages, but it always burned clear. Considering, however, that the boy would go no further, and if I went alone, and my candle was to be extinguished, it would be hard to find my way back in the dark, I prudently returned the way I came, observing the construction, which was of stone, and in good preservation. It was clearly an aqueduct for supplying the fortress with water, and must have been made at a great expense by some powerful chieftain, who had his residence there.”

It is very unlikely that passages so large as Beranger describes would have been constructed for the purposes of a water supply, and it is much more probable that they led to some secret exit, and were intended for use in troublous times.

Notwithstanding the formidable character of its defences, Ballymount has a peaceful record, and it figures but little in local history.

An ancient road, portions of which may still be traced, ran from Ballymount to the Belgard road, near the cross roads known as the Shoulder of Mutton.

As we continue our journey along Ballymount Lane we may observe, on high ground to the left, Kilnamanagh House, an old-fashioned country residence built on to the remains of an ancient castle, some of the old massive doors of which remained until recent years. There was also a monastery here, with a church and churchyard, which probably accounts for the quantity of human bones unearthed from time to time near the house by agricultural operations. No doubt this place saw some fighting during the wars of the 17th century, when nearly all the strongholds and castles of the Pale were on their defence against enemies and marauders of every description.

From this point the lane winds in a very irregular fashion until it meets the road from Tallaght to Clondalkin, Opposite the entrance to Belgard, a place of considerable historic interest, where, in a commanding position on the summit of a wooded eminence, the modern Castle of Belgard rises majestically on the site of its ancient predecessor, a structure which for 600 years withstood the ravages of time no less than the assaults of war. The locality is inseparably associated with a branch of the Talbot family, known as the Talbots of Belgard, who, so far back as the 15th century, were in occupation of the castle, and had frequently to defend it against forays by the mountaineers.

In the time of Charles the First and during the Commonwealth, John Talbot of Belgard, took sides with the Confederate Catholics, and his estates were consequently forfeited, after which he followed the adherents of the monarchy into exile and rendered distinguished service in the war in Flanders. On the Restoration the estates were restored to the family “for reason known unto the King in an especial manner meriting his grace and favour.” At the war of the Revolution, Colonel John Talbot of Belgard espoused the cause of James II., and fought at the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim, and the estates would no doubt have been forfeited a second time but for the fact that Colonel Talbot was included in the Articles of the Treaty of Limerick. As his age precluded him from going abroad with his comrades in arms, he retired to the seclusion of Belgard, where he passed his remaining years in the ease and comfort to which his adventurous and distinzuished career had entitled him.

He was the last of the Talbots of Belgard, and at his death in 1697, without male issue, his estate passed to the Dillon family by a marriage of his daughter with a great grandson of the first Viscount Dillon. Belgard subsequently passed in succession into possession of the Trant, Cruise, Kennedy, and Laurence families.

Adjoining Belgard, is Newlands, the former residence of Lord Kilwarden, Chief Justice of Ireland, who was murdered in 1803 during the insurrection of Robert Emmet.

Turning to the right opposite the entrance to Belgard, in about a mile we reach the Naas road at the cross-roads called “The Shoulder of Mutton,” from an inn which stood there in old times. The low ground here, lying immediately south of the Naas road was formerly a bog known as Mone Roodan. Here we turn to the left along the main road, and after about a mile and a half, turn to the right in order to visit the once famous Corkagh Powder Mills, the explosion at which in 1787 caused such general consternation for miles around. These mills, nine altogether, erected in 1783, were regarded as an important national undertaking, and although the expectations in regard to them were not fully realised, they gave a deal of employment in the neighbourhood. One of the proprietors, named, Arabin, lived in Corkagh House adjoining, and, being very wealthy, the house was for some years the scene of considerable gaiety, and the rendezvous of frequent hunting parties in the season.

The explosion at the mills occurred in April, 1787, and the quantity of powder stored there at the time was estimated at not less than 260 barrels. It is stated that the shock was felt even in the city and throughout a considerable area of the surrounding country. The whole building where the disaster occurred was completely torn from its foundations and hurled into the air; ponderous masses of masonry, tons in weight, were carried five or six fields away, and one large piece was deposited close to the village of Clondalkin, while the fish in the ponds adjoining the mills were all killed by the shock, and in some cases blown out on the banks.

In Exshaw’s Magazine, of 25th April, 1787, is the following notice of the occurrence: - “This afternoon the powder mills of Clondalkin, belonging to Councillor Caldbeck, by some unknown accident blew up. Two men who were at Work in the mill were destroyed, and many of the neighbouring houses greatly shattered; it also occasioned the sudden fall of a stack of chimnies near Meetinghouse yard on Usher’s Quay, but fortunately no accident occurred in consequence of the same. The explosion was severely felt in the most distant parts of the country, and even in the County of Kildare for some miles near the banks of the canal.”

The ruins of the various buildings - the grinding houses, drying sheds, and magazines - together with the ponds, mill dams and sluice gates connected with the various portions of the establishment, cover a considerable area, probably 15 or 20 acres, and the whole place is little altered from the condition in which it was left by the explosion *125 *years ago. A few of the buildings have been converted into hay sheds and cattle shelters, and the little islands in the ponds present quite a picturesque appearance owing to the dense growth of trees and brushwood with which they are now covered. The water for the ponds is supplied by the River Camac, which rises in the mountains over Brittas, and flowing under the name of the Slade River through the Slade of Saggart, passes hence by Clondalkin and Drimnagh, until it joins the Liffey at Inchicore. A monument was erected on the site to commemorate the disaster, but no trace of it is now discernible, nor could any information be obtained as to its fate.

This was the second explosion of powder mills in Clondalkin, an earlier one having occurred in 1733, on which occasion a number of persons were injured, but, notwithstanding these experiences, a third mill was erected about the beginning of the last century.

Making our way from here to Clondalkin, we enter that ancient village from the south, coming at once into view of the Round Tower on the left. Brewer in his *Beauties of Ireland *(1826), thus describes this place: - “The devious street is lined with the low cabins usual to the peasantry of this island, but with such as rank among the neatest of their ordinary dwellings.” Since that time, however, the village has been entirely altered and rebuilt, and the paper mills of Messrs. Kynoch, together with the neat cottages erected for the employees, give the place an appearance very different from that described by Brewer.

The most interesting object in the village is the round tower, which, being the most accessible of these structures to the city, is much visited by tourists. It is 84 feet high, measures 45 feet in circumference at the base, and the walls are 3 feet thick. The door is about 15 feet from the ground, and the portion of the structure below it is solid masonry, which at a recent period was strengthened by a massive stone casing ascended by a flight of steps to the doorway.

East of the tower and now separated from it by the public road, is the modern Protestant Church, in the graveyard of which are some small remains of the ancient church, as well as an old font, rudely fashioned out of a granite boulder. In the Gabriel Beranger portfolio in the Royal Irish Academy is a drawing of Clondalkin old church, made about the year 1770, by T. Archdeacon, which has the following note written on it: - “These old remains were demolished by the blowing up of the powder mills in this neighbourhood sometime after this drawing was taken.” In Grose’s drawing of the Place) made about twenty years later, only a small portion of one wall of the ruin is shown, from which it would appear that the remainder must have fallen during the interval. Unless, however, the ruin was in a very dilapidated condition indeed, it seems hardly probable that it could have been “demolished” by an explosion a mile and a half distant.

An ecclesiastical establishment stood in Clondalkin in early times, but was repeatedly ravaged by Danish marauders, for protection against whom the round tower was probably erected. The Danes had a fortress here called Dunawley or Auluff’s Fort, which was burnt in the year 865 by the Irish, who slew the whole garrison.

When Archbishop Henry de Loundres, about the year 1220, established the office of Dean of St. Patrick’s, he assigned for the support of the office, the church of Clondalkin, together with a portion of bog at Deansrath, about a mile from the village, for which latter concession the Dean was to pay annually one pound of frankincense at Easter to the Archbishop’s Chapel at Clondalkin.

About 1326 a report on the condition of the manor of Clondalkin, defining its boundaries, describes part of it as “waste, being among the Irishry.”

The circuit described in this chapter entails a journey of about 19 miles, starting from and returning to the G.P.O. (The General Post Office, O’Connell Street, KF)

To Chapter 22. To Neighbourhood Index. Home.