ByRoute 12.1 Co. Meath (S) // Co. Offaly
ByRoute 12 commences at Clonsilla on the outskirts of DUBLIN.
Dunboyne (Co. Meath / Southeast)
Dunboyne (Dún Búinne -”Baeithin’s / Boyne’s fort”) (pop. 6000), immortalised as the rural community of Leestown in the wildly popular old television soap opera The Riordans, is nowadays primarily a dormitory town for the city of DUBLIN, served by Dublin Bus routes 70, 70X, 70N and 270.
The Riordans, 1965 – 1979 (Photo – RTE)
Dunboyne Castle
Dunboyne Castle was the the early C14th seat of Thomas de Botiller, Lord of Dunboyne, whose descendant Sir Edmund Butler, Kt, was made Baron of Dunboyne by letters patent in 1541.
The C18th saw a fine Georgian mansion erected in stages (with plaster work by the Francini brothers and/or Robert West), but the property was the subject of a series of lawsuits over much of the period.
John Butler (b. 1731), third son of the 18th / 8th Lord Dunboyne, was not required to join his elder brothers in the Austrian Army; despite having lost an eye in unknown circumstances (presumably a duel), he was ordained at the Irish College in Rome as a Roman Catholic priest, and as a cousin of Dr James Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, was unsurprisingly appointed by Pope Clement XIII as Bishop of Cork in 1763. Due to the unexpected deaths of his brothers and nephew, he became 22nd / 12th Baron Dunboyne in 1776.
Rather than allow his dynastic line to die out, he sought a Papal dispensation, sensationally resigned his Bishopric and married his relative Maria Butler; when Pope Pius VI refused his request, he converted to Protestantism amidst huge hullabaloo (as Ireland’s only official apostate clergyman), but allegedly recanted prior to his death in 1800. His only child, a daughter, was apparently born in Dunboyne Castle, but died in infancy.
His bequest of property to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth was disputed by his sister, Mrs Catherine O’Brien Butler of Bansha Castle, Tipperary; a series of suits, notably Butler v. Moore (1802) (denying privilege to confessional priest-penitent communications), resulted in a settlement establishing the Dunboyne endowment of scholarships.
The title was inherited by a Clare branch of Butlers who later acquired Knappogue Castle; the 28th / 18th Lord Dunboyne (d.2004), an Irish Guards Officer during WWII, was a barrister and judge in England, President of the Irish Geneological Research Society, and author of the Butler Family History (1966).
Dunboyne Castle subsequently passed through the Sadlier, Beamish, Mangan and Koenig families, and was leased to the famous polo player John Morrogh-Ryan until after WWII. The Sisters of the Good Sheperd nuns ran it as a centre for unmarried mothers-to-be until 1991. Since 2008, the old house has formed the centrepiece of the luxurious Dunboyne House Hotel.
During the 1798 Rebellion, Dunboyne was the location of an encampment of Wexford insurgents under the command of Fr Mogue Kearns on 12th July as they attempted to join forces with northern rebels.
Dunboyne is
Balymaglassan church & graveyard (Photo by Peggy Ashby)
Garadice is the location of Hatton’s Pub, a pleasant hostelry with reasonably priced B&B facilities.
Summerhill (Co. Meath / South)
Summerhill (Cnoc an Linsigh – “Lynch’s Hill”) is a small community set around a pleasant village green.
The Irish name recalls the long dominance of the Norman Lynch family, later included among the “Tribes of Galway”; until the mid-C17th this was Anglicised as “Lynch’s Knock” / “The Knock”.
This was the location of one of the most important Irish confrontations during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the 1647 Battle of Dungan’s Hill, at which the Kilkenny Confederacy’s Leinster army marching towards Dublin under Thomas Preston was decisively routed (with over 3000 casualties) by Parliamentarian troops led by Michael Jones (who later defeated the mixed Confederate / Royalist army commanded by the Marquess of Ormonde at the 1649 Battle of Rathmines).
The victor’s brother, Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath (best remembered as the donor of the Book of Kells to Trinity College), was granted this land in 1661 by the restored King Charles II, who chose to overlook the prelate’s role as Scoutmaster General for Cromwell’s army. He sold the property to Sir Hercules Langford, who gave it its modern English name in 1667.
Summerhill House
Summerhill House, built c.1730 for Hercules Langford Rowley, 2nd Baron Langford, was considered to be one of the most dramatic of the great Palladian mansions of Ireland. The design was accredited to architects Edward Lovett Pearce and Richard Cassells.
(Photo – Milton Keynes Heritage Association)
The mansion was chosen to accommodate Elizabeth (“Sisi”), Empress of Austria on her 1879 and 1880 visits to Ireland to hunt. The 4th Lord Langford, Hercules Edward Rowley, aka “Paddy”, was persuaded to rent the premises to the Government and stayed as a guest of the Empress in his own home, together with the 5th Earl Spencer, twice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and his dashing Anglo–Scot equerry George “Bay” Middleton, alleged to have been the Empress’s lover (and probable father of Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine Ogilvy Hozier).
The Empress rode out every day with the famous local Master of Hounds, Leonard Morragh, who was so pleased with her riding skills that he gave her Domino, her favourite horse for many years (when he died she had his hooves mounted).
Once, when she was hunting with the Ward Union, a stag jumped through a gap in a wall and into Maynooth Seminary with the Empress and hounds in hot pursuit. The College President, Dr Walsh, came out to meet the group and offered them refreshments; she subsequently attended Mass at the college chapel and presented a set of gold-embroidered silk vestments.
The presence of a popular Roman Catholic monarch in Ireland was a political headache for the Duke of Buckingham, the serving Lord Lieutenant. Everywhere she went there were triumphal arches and large crowds to cheer her.
Summerhill House was damaged by fire on a number of occasions. The War of Independence saw it deliberately destroyed by Republican arsonists on 4th February 1921. In 1925 the Free State Government paid compensation of £43,500 (approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire) to Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, who moved to England.
Summerhill House stood as a ruin until it was totally demolished in 1970. An atmospheric photograph of the ruin can be seen here.
The ruins of the old Lynch castle was retained as a folly and is still visible on Summerhill Demesne, which is private property.
Summerhill is
Rathmolyon (Co. Meath / South)
Rathmolyon (Rath Máigh Laighin – “the Fort of the Leinster Plain”) (pop. 170) is an attractive crossroads village. The district is characterised by limestone walls, and features several interesting old buildings.
St Michael & All Angels church (CoI), built in 1797, had a splendid octagonal bell tower with a “witch’s hat” steeple added in 1857.
Harnan’s Pub is a handsome thatched house dating from c.1880.
Rathmolyon was a significant location in the late C19thdevelopment of the Christian Conventions / Cooneyite movement(s).
The Rathmolyon Esker has been proposed as a Natural Heritage Area.
Enfield (Co. Meath / South)
Enfield / Innfield (An Bóthar Buí – “the yellow road”) (pop. 1100), situated near an ancient route to / from Tara, derives its English name from The Royal Oak Inn, an C18th mail-coach hostelry on the old Dublin – Mullingar road, thought to have occupied the present position of the Bridge House Inn. The location was denoted on 1790s maps as “The New Inn”; this became Innfield, eventually anglicised (allegedly by an English postmaster)as Enfield after the well known London borough (although it remained Innfield on many maps).
The construction of the Royal Canal was followed by the 1847 opening of the Midland Great Western Railway opened between Broadstone Station in Dublin and Enfield; the town became the transfer point between trains and boats for passenger traffic until the railway was extended westwards.
Enfield is unusual in having no church; the parish still centres on the older community of Rathmolyon.
The Celtic Brew company is a micro-brewery in Enfield which produces the award winning Finians Lager.
A canalside park has been established around the small harbour.
The Marriott Johnstown House Hotel & Spa, a modern luxury facility on the outskirts of Enfield, is built around a Georgian country house (c.1750) with magnificent plasterwork ceilings by the Francini Brothers.
Enfield is not farfrom Kilcock (Co. Kildare) on ByRoute 11.
