Parish of Kilgobbin

*(i.e. the Ghurch ol St. Gobban) *

The parish appears in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands of Kilgobbin, Jamestown, and Ballyedmonduff.

It now contains the townlands of Ballybrack *(i.e., *the speckled town), Ballyedmonduff *(i.e., *the town of black Edmund), Barnacullia *(i.e., *the top of the wood), Jamestown, Kilgobbin, Newtown Little, and Woodside.

The mountains known as the Three Rock and the Two Rock are within the parish.

There are wells known as St. James’ Well and St. Patrick’s Well in the parish, and one known as the Eye Well formerly existed near the church.

The objects of antiquarian interest which have been found within the parish are, places of sepulture known as giants’ graves in the townlands of Ballybrack and Ballyedmonduff, a high cross and a ruined castle in Kilgobbin, a cross in Jamestown near Stepaside,** **and a cairn known as the Fairies’ Castle on the Two Rock Mountain. **

Kilgobbin and its Castle**

Such history as is possessed by the mountainous parish of Kilgobbin, which lies to the east of the parish of Whitechurch, and extends from the parish of Taney to that of Kiltiernan, centres round its castle. The ruins of this castle are still to be seen in the village of Kilgobbin close to the road from Dublin to Enniskerry. They show the castle to have been one of the ordinary upright castles of the Pale - a strongly built oblong structure, two storeys over the basement in height, with a square projection containing the staircase at one corner.

It is, however, probable that, like the other parishes in this district, Kilgobbin saw many generations of inhabitants before the erection of a castle. Two early places of sepulture, called locally giants’ graves, have been discovered within its limits (Both these graves have now disappeared. The one in Ballybrack used to be known as the greyhound’s bed)**, **and a cairn known as the fairies’ castle is marked on the Ordnance Map (Beranger (Sketch Book in the Royal Irish Academy) thought that the rocks on the summits of the Three Rock and Two Rock mountains were placed there by artificial means).

After the Anglo-Norman Conquest the Harolds appear as the first owners of Kilgobbin, and in the middle of the thirteenth century, as mentioned under Whitechurch, Sir John Harold, who is described in a deed as Lord John Harold of Kilgobbin, was in possession of the lands.

At the same time adjoining lands then called Balyofryn were given to All Saints’ Priory by one Claricia, a daughter of Gilbert, and wife of a descendant of the chiefs called MacGillamocholmog. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the Harolds were still in possession of Kilgobbin, and prolonged litigation then took place between the guardians of Peter, son of Geoffrey Harold, Isabella, widow of Geoffrey Harold, and Margaret, wife of Thomas Spencer and widow of John Harold, as the representatives of Sir Geoffrey Harold. Subsequently the ownership of Kilgobbin passed from the Harolds to the Hackets, one of whom, Sir William Hacket, had acted as guardian to Peter Harold; and members of the Howell family are mentioned as being in occupation of portion of the townland. About the same tune we find the Derpatricks of Stillorgan holding the lands of Balyofryn, and a family called Dawe occupying the lands of Jamestown.

A branch of the Walsh family of Carrickinines, the Harolds’ comrades in the protection of the Pale, later on settled on the lands of Kilgobbin. To that family was doubtless due the erection of the castle. Amongst its successive occupants were, in 1482 Morris Walsh, in 1509 Pierce, son of Morris Walsh; in 1578 John Walsh, in 1599 Edmond Walsh, in 1615 Christopher Walsh, and in 1620 Patrick, *alias *Pierce Walsh, a son of John Walsh, in whose time a court was held by order of the Exchequer at Kilgobbin, and certain persons were found guilty of non-attendance by a jury composed of the Walshes and their neighbours.

The lands of Balyofryn, on the dissolution of the religious houses, had come into the possession of the Corporation of Dublin, and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth we find Jacques Wingfield, the tenant of Stillorgan, holding them and covenanting to build a castle upon them.

Before the rebellion of 1641 Sir Adam Loftus, of Rathfarnham, had become possessed of the Walshes’ interest in Kilgobbin, and under him it was then occupied by one Matthew Talbot. Talbot became an officer in the Irish army, and an unfortunate widow who lived near him on the lands of Murphystown relates in a deposition how he deprived her of all her possessions, and how in the castle at Kilgobbin she besought his mother, “a woman not moved with compassion,” to restore her a pittance to buy corn for her children.

In the following January, on the same day as that on which Dundrum Castle was taken, a party of horse proceeded to the Castle of Kilgobbin, and on their approach were met by a fusillade from the muskets of the occupants which killed one of the soldiers and mortally wounded another. Some prominent leaders of the Irish are said to have been in the castle at the time and to have afterwards escaped. Subsequently the castle was taken possession of by General Monk, and was garrisoned, as well as Loughlinstown Castle, by his company.

After the establishment of the Commonwealth the castle, which, though its roof was only a thatched one, contained as many as four hearths, became the residence of Dr. John Harding, an ex-fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

He was one of the greatest political apostates of his time. A native of Staffordshire and graduate of Cambridge University, he was in 1637 imposed on Trinity College as an upholder of absolute monarchy, and to him the Earl of Strafford and Strafford’s friends, Sir George Radcliffe and Christopher Wandesforde, entrusted the education of their sons.

Six years later he was as vehement in support of the Commonwealth, preaching sermons and publishing pamphlets against kingly rule until imprisoned and subsequently banished to England. Next he appears with Cromwell’s army before the walls of Drogheda trying to induce that staunch old royalist, Sir Arthur Aston, to surrender. Afterwards he acted as trustee of the obllege estates, and finally we find him settled down at Kilgobbin, where in 1665 he died.

About the middle of the eighteenth century Kilgobbin, which had passed through the hands of various owners, including the Eustaces of Harristown, the M’Donnells of Antrim, and Richard Nutley, one of Queen Anne’s Irish judges, was, like Loughlinstown, a resort of fox hunters. There, as mentioned under Mount Merrion, was kennelled the pack of hounds with which Lord Chancellor Jocelyn’s son, who became Earl of Roden, used to hunt. The kennel and hounds were carried away one winter by a mountain torrent, and their sad fate has been told in an elegy written in 1748, and inscribed to Mr. Jocelyn by one William Chamberlain, whose poetic soul pours itself out in lines of somewhat doubtful merit.

The other events during that century at Kilgobbin, where the quarrying of granite was, as at present, the principal industry, are few and unimportant. During the famine of 1740 a cart laden with oatmeal was overturned, causing the death of two men; in 1751 a terrible fire took places at a dairyman’s houses resulting in the destruction of fifteen cows and injury to the dairyman and his servants; and robberies are occasionally recorded.

Towards the end of that century that indefatigable antiquary, Austin Cooper, paid two visits to Kilgobbin Castle. He found it then much out of repair, and mentions that it was locally reported that Dublin people had shortly before been digging there at night and had found buried treasure. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The** **ruined church of Kilgobbin, which is situated on a small hill and forms a prominent object, is a building erected just two hundred years ago. It occupies, however, the site of a church which stood at Kilgobbin at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, and near it stands a fine and typical specimen of the plain high cross – now defaced and crumbled by the weather. It is cut out of a piece of grey granite eight feet high, one foot four inches broad, and eight inches thick. It was originally three feet eight inches over the arms, but the southern arm, with the segment of the circle on that side, is broken off and lost. The cross had a small roll moulding round the edges, but not carried round the rind. On each face we can dimly see the figure of our Lord in the long garment reaching to the ankles, which marks the early period of Irish art, and with the excellent proportion of the cross suggests an age nearly, if not over, a thousand years for the monument. The shaft is carefully fitted into an oblong mortice in a shapeless base stone, which measures four feet nine inches across, and has a bullaun, or shallow basin, one foot in diameter cut in its surface.

The church of Kilgobbin is said to owe its foundation to St. Gobban, whose festival falls on April 1st, and whose name appears in “The Martyrology of Tallaght,” as well as in “The Martyrology of Donegal.”

After the Anglo-Norman Conquest Kilgobbin was granted to the Archbishop of Dublin, and was subsequently assigned to the Archdeacon of Dublin, becoming, as mentioned under Taney, one of the chapels subservient to the church at that place. Before the seventeenth century its use was given up, and in 1615 both chancel and nave were in ruins.

When Archbishop King was promoted to the See of Dublin in 1703 he found the parishes of Taney and Cruagh, as well as that of Kilgobbin, unprovided with churches, and at once set about the erection of a church at Kilgobbin, which he intended to serve for the three parishes. The church was completed before 1707, and was served until 1720 by that over-worked man the Rev. Walter Thomas, the curate of Donnybrook. Then it was made a separate charge.

For more than thirty years it was served by the Rev. Thomas Gascoyne, and after Gascoyne’s death in 1753 the Rev. Mervyn Archdall, the renowned antiquary, was appointed to the cure. While at Kilgobbin Archdall appears not to have neglected the antiquities of the neighbourhood, and it was to him that Gabriel Beranger was indebted for guidance to the Brehon’s Chair at Glensouthwell.

To Archdall succeeded, in 1758, the Rev. Jeremy Walsh already mentioned under the parish of Taney, but after the erection of the church of Taney he was relieved of Kilgobbin. Then for a few yean; the Rev. Andrew Downes was in charge. He was succeeded in 3772 by an extraordinary character, the Rev. Patrick Crawley, who had the distinction of being the tutor of Sir Jonah Barrington. Crawley is described by his pupil as a man in knowledge excelled by few, but singular in his movements from his immense size and peculiarity of dress. In his time the collection of tithe was not unattended with danger, and although content to accept less than his due Crawley nearly lost his life on one occasion while out with his collector.

Under the Roman Catholic Church Kilgobbin was included until the nineteenth century in a union of parishes embracing all the country from a little south of Blackrock to Bray river. In the eighteenth century clergy of that church are occasionally mentioned in connection with Kilgobbin. In 1731 it is stated in a parliamentary return that a priest was attached to the parish, and in 1779 a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Mulvey, who was then dangerously wounded by robbers, was residing at Sandyford, near Kilgobbin. In 1829 Sandyford, Glencullen, Kilgobbin, and Kiltiernan were made a separate charge, and the succession of parish priests since then has been-Rev. Patrick Smyth, Rev. Charles O’Connell, and Rev. James Canon Leahy.

Under the Established Church Kilgobbin Church continued to be used until the erection of the present church at Kiltiernan in 1826, when the parishes were united, and the succession of vicars of Kilgobbin after the death of Mr. Crawley was-in 1803 the Rev. Hayes Phipps Queade, in 1813 the Rev. Matthew Campbell, and in 1817 the Rev. Henry Kearney.

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