ByRoute 7.2 Co. Kilkenny (N) & Co. Tipperary
Clogh, famed for its photogenic thatched cottages, takes its name from the C13th castle Clogh-ma-leithid.
Castlecomer (Co. Kilkenny / North)
Castlecomer (Caisleán an Chumair – “The castle at the confluence of the rivers”) (pop. 2000), located in a wooded valley at the junction of the Rivers Deen, Brocagh and Clohogue, is an exceptionally attractive town, reputedly modelled on Alsinore in Italy, and has been an important commercial hub since the C17th.
Castlecomer centres around an attractive square lined with lime trees. It was in this square that Charles Stuart Parnell had quicklime thrown in his eyes by a fanatical bigot at a political rally in 1891, probably hastening his death.
Castlecomer was named for its Norman castle; the original 1171 wooden structure was destroyed by the local O’Brennan clan, but Strongbow’s heir, William Marshal, soon replaced it with a stone edifice, the remains of which can still be seen. His daughter Sibella was granted the manor in 1219, but the O’Brennans controlled the area for another four centuries.
In 1637 Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, granted the 30,000-acre (120 km²) estate to his cousin, Sir Christopher Wandesforde (1592 – 1640), who succeeded him briefly as Lord Deputy. His descendants developed the important local anthracite coal mines with imported English labour, built the town of stone and mortar, and were over the next six generations granted the titles of Baronet, Baron and Viscount Wandesforde of Castlecomer; the 5th Viscount, Sir John Wandesforde, was made Earl Wandesford in 1758 but died childless in 1784. His sister Lady Frances Susan Elizabeth Wandesforde had in 1769 married John Butler (1740 – 1795), who assumed the Wandesford name by Royal Licence and in 1791 was restored by the Irish House of Lords to his title of 17th Earl of Ormonde.
The tail end of the 1798 Rebellion saw Fr. John Murphy, Myles Byrne and their remaining followers take but fail to hold the town; the fighting caused extensive damage and loss of life. A number of local colliers rallied to the rebel cause, but subsequently deserted before the disastrous Battle of Kilcumley. Nevertheless, the town’s 1798 Memorial seat is both unusual and attractive.
Charles Harward Butler Clarke Southwell Wandesford (1781 – 1860) took a great interest in the running of the Estate and in the welfare of his tenants and attempted to reduce the role of middlemen by reducing rents and providing assistance during the Great Famine, when he helped some families to start new lives in America.
Castlecomer House, originally built in 1638, was burnt down in the fighting of 1798. It was replaced in 1802 by a magnificent Georgian mansion, home to the Prior-Wandesforde family, which was partially destroyed by mindless arsonists in the 1960s and knocked down in 1975.
Castlecomer Discovery Park is part of the former 180-acre Demesne, charmingly landscaped with cascades, caves and follies; two artificial lakes have been reinstalled and restocked for angling. The impressive Visitors’ Centre houses the excellent Café Jarrow and an interesting geological exhibition focusing on the history of coal mining in the area, including the 1864 discovery by miners of significant early amphibian fossils. The Estate Yard features a variety of attractive Arts & Crafts workshops.
Mealy’s Auctioneers conducts sales of fine art, rare books and antique furniture.
Castlecomer is not far from
Ballyragget (Co. Kilkenny / North)
Ballyragget (Beal Atha Raghad – ‘Mouth of Ragget’s Ford’) (pop. 1,900), a planned town on the River Nore, is situated in a wide alluvial valley between the Castlecomer Plateau and several hills to the west. There is a pleasant fair green, and a large Roman Catholic church overlooks the central square, where there is a good café.
The Square, Ballyragget
The town is named after Richard le Ragget, a C13th Norman landowner. The district was anciently called Donoughmore – “Big Sunday”, referring to the crowds who once gathered for Mass at the now ruined church, said to have been founded by Saint Patrick.
Ballyragget Castle was home Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret, and several generations of descendants. It is an imposing C16th Tower House and bawn with rounded turrets and a wishing chair, fallen into disrepair.
The Siege / Battle of Ballygarrett took place in February 1775, after landlord Robert Butler had angered tenants by attempting to enclose common land, and was forced by death threats to flee abroad. His brother Dr. James Butler II, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, organised the local gentry into an Anti-Whiteboy League, trained by Captain Hewitson of Swift’s Heath, and soon routed the peasants. The militants regrouped a fortnight later and marched on Butler House, dressed in white and carrying flaming sods of turf on sticks, but the defenders’ shots killed ten (including one Patrick Butler) and forced the rest to flee ignominiously. No further Whiteboy outrages took place locally.
Ballyragget is
Rathbeagh, on the west bank of a ford at a bend in the River Nore, is the site of a significant prehistoric fort, founded according to legend by the ancient Taoiseach Milesius‘ son Heremon, who is reputedly buried within.
Jenkinstown (Co. Kilkenny / North)
Jenkinstown is a small village with a crafts centre and a pleasant café.
Foulksrath Castle, a reputedly haunted medieval edifice with winding staircases, enormous fireplaces and a magnificent dining hall, is the oldest Youth Hostel in Ireland.
Jenkinstown Park, previously part of the old Bryan-Bellew Estate, consists of a walled deer park, lawns, picnic sites and forest walks through mixed broadleaf and conifer plantations. Some original park trees from the 1870s survive and include a number of rare species such as Chinese necklace poplar. A feature of this park is the beech wood carpeted with bluebells from mid to late April. Many species of birds inhabit the wood including pheasants, ravens and long-eared owls. In addition to enclosed deer, mammals include fox, badger, stoat, red and grey squirrel, and there are bats in the old church.
Jenkinstown House has been partly restored and remains a private residence. Thomas Moore wrote The Last Rose of Summer while staying here, and a small garden to commemorate his association with the property has been laid down near the old mansion. The former chatelaine, Lady Bellew, famously carried a pet monkey on her shoulder; while a more recent owner, Seán Hennessy, made his living as a model and photographer in Japan.
Swift’s Heath was the Duke of Ormonde’s reward to his Attorney General for the Palatinate of Tipperary, an English lawyer called Godwin Swift, whose cousin Jonathan Swift stayed there while studying in Kilkenny, before becoming Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
Jenkinstown is within easy reach of Threecastles on ByRoute 6.
Freshford (Co. Kilkenny / North)
Freshford (Achad Úr – “Fresh Field”) is an exceptionally attractive village on the River Nuenna, a tributary of the River Nore.
Freshford History
A late C6th / early C7th monastery said to have been founded by Saint Lachtain was virtually destroyed by Vikings in 836AD. The church was rebuilt several times.
In 1169 a 3-day battle at the Pass of Achedur ended with the defeat of Domhnall McGiolla Padraig of Ossory by Dermot Mc Murrough and his Norman allies. The exact site of the battle is much debated. The Norman invasion also brought the Shortalls to Freshford, the Purcells to Lismaine and the Graces to Tullaroan.
In 1245, King Henry III granted “the Manor of Athedur” to Geoffrey de Tourville, Bishop of Ossory, and in 1251 Bishop Hugh de Mapleton built an Episcopal Palace at Uppercourt as a country residence for himself and his successors. In 1477 the Anti-Pope John XXIII appointed a Chaplain to Uppercourt. The first Anglican Bishop of Ossory John Bale, fled the area in 1551 after five servants were killed for working in a hayfield on a Roman Catholic Holy Day of Obligation.
St Lachtain’s church (CoI), built in 1731, incorporates a beautiful but worn Hiberno-Romanesque sandstone portal dating from 1100, one of only two such doorways left standing in Ireland (the other is in Clonfert, Co. Galway). The atmospheric churchyard contains both Protestant and Roman Catholic graves.
The Square / Green is the focal point of the village. It is lined with 52 splendid horse chestnut trees, and since 1999 has been the venue for the annual Irish Conker Championships, held on the last weekend of October.
A Country Market is held in the Community Hall every Saturday morning.
The present Uppercourt Manor was built by Sir William Morres in the late C18th. A Roman Catholic family from England, the Eyres, landlords from 1850 to 1918, were largely responsible for constructing Freshford in its present form. The mansion was subsequently a boarding school and is currently used to store antique furniture.
Brown’s Wood is a Coillte recreational facility with an attractive looped walk.
Clomantagh Castle is an interesting complex of buildings spanning several centuries, including a C12th church, a medieval Tower House (c.1430), bawn and dovecote, and a Victorian farmhouse. The tower bears a curious Sheela-na-Gig. The premises, said to be haunted by a resentful victim of the Great Famine, are avaiable for self-catering holiday rental.
Ballylarkin Castle was the seat of the Shortall family for several centuries.
Ballylarkin Abbey, a small religious establishment founded in 1350 by the Shortall family, is noted for its splendid carvings.
Freshford is not far from Tullaroan on ByRoute 6.
Clontubbrid is associated with Saint Fiachra of Mieux, the patron of gardening, taxi cabs and venereal diseases.
Balleen Castle, mentioned in a 1596 document. was remodelled by Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret, the Kilkenny Confederation general who fled Ireland in 1647. Local tradition has it that the new edifice was never finished or inhabited. It collapsed in 1875.
Fartagh / Fertagh is the site of a tall (96ft) but cracked and roofless Round Tower, and the ruins of a C13th Augustinian Priory founded by the Blanchfield family. The ruined chapel contains an altar tomb with the recumbrent figure of a male warrior, and another tomb with a female figure wearing striking headgear.
Johnstown (Co. Kilkenny / Northwest)
Johnstown is a pleasant crossroads community with a village green.
Barry Morrissey’s Bar & Restaurant serves good traditional food and drink.
Violet Hill, of which only vestigial ruins remain, was the home of the C17th Chief Justice Hely; his descendant Gorges Hely died in the accidental fire that destroyed the building in 1842. The family also owned Foulkescourt, site of a now ruined five-storey Tower House with a spiral staircase.
Ballyspellan / Ballyspellin used to be a fashionable spa resort, parodied in 1726 by Sheridan (”If lady’s cheek be green as leek. when she comes from her dwelling, the kindling rose within it glows, when she’s at Ballinspellin” etc.), who resented Dean Swift’s Answer (”Those pocky drabs, to cure their scabs, you thither are compelling, will back be sent worse than they went, to nasty Ballinspellin“etc.).
Johnstown is linked by main roads to Rathdowney and Cullahill, both on ByRoute 8.
Urlingford (Áth na nUrlainn) is best known to travellers on the N8 as a resting-point half way between Dublin and Cork. Scenic Mill Road features a ruined church and cemetery with a plaque commemorating victims of the Great Famine. The Pythonesquely incompetent INLA psycho-kidnapper Dessie “Border Fox” O’Hare was captured in the town in 1987.
Urlingford is within reach of
