Rathdown castle and St Crispens cell

Paddy hogan

What ever happened to the Greystones Historical web site where they had several Journals published on Historical interests.

micandre

Hello,

I'm unsure but I've had these in my favourites for a while...

http://www.glendalough.connect.ie/pages/articles/history/index.html

http://www.petermcniff.com/kennedy/kennedyhistory.htm

Paddy hogan

Thanks for web links.

Peter McNiffs book "Stories from a small Town" is also a good reference.

The site I was asking about had published 4 Journals on historical activities in the region. Their web site is no longer available - pity. I did send them several Emails wishing to purchase the Journals but never got any reply.

sagat

I believe there were copies of them in the old library, not sure if they made the move to the temporary one at the Swimming pool or if they are just in storage somewhere.

Valmont

I live beside Crispins cell but where is Rathdown castle? Is it the one knocked down in the '80s opposite the Esso?

sagat

Valmont wrote: »

I live beside Crispins cell but where is Rathdown castle? Is it the one knocked down in the '80s opposite the Esso?

Nope that was just an old burnt out house. Going on memory from a school project in the early 90's Rathdown castle was in the field directly beside St Crispans cell, it's stonework was pillaged to build the old farmhouse that's there along with the old railway bridge that I think is now gone. There used to be a sewage works in the same field and as far as I know the last visable traces of the castle (a tower) was leveled in the construction of it. If you follow the path down to the sea from the train tracks (I'm not sure how this works now) on rainy days you'll notice a spring gushing to the left of the path. Supposedly this spring would have been in the central courtyard of the old fortification.

The castle and surrounding village were inhabited between the 12th and 17th century with the church predating the castle by about 2 hundred years. In the field directly East of the train tracks you can see an extensive system of bronze age ramparts indicating that the site was inhabited long before Christianity washed ashore.

As far as I know a bunch of artifacts from the site long history have been exposed over the years by the eroding cliffs including a horde of coins that I think are in Bray library if not some dusty national museum box.

There were some limited excavations at the site in 1994 in order to run a pipe but they didn't find much.

Pity there's not much info available online, there was a nice colorful book on the history of the area that was available in the local bookshop mid 90's, I'm sure there's plenty of copies still flying about somewhere.

Paddy hogan

Your information is accurate regarding the location of the Castle. The Spring on the left hand side of Ennis lane about 200 yards from the Bridge (now fallen down) supplied the small town that grew up around the Castle. Most of the Castle stone went into the construction of the rail bridge. If you look closely at the collasped bridge you will see the different stone used in its construction.

The Lime Kiln was removed brick by brick and each brick numbered so that it could be reassembled at a future date. I believe it was to be recostructed at Charlsland Golf Club.

The reystones Historical Society did publish 4 Journals with in depth knowledge of the area - and I can no longer track them down on the web.
Visiting the Library in Greystones is out of the question - as I live in Australia.

Thanks for your web link

Valmont

sagat wrote: »

Nope that was just an old burnt out house.

I think I know that one, I saw the firemen put the fire out. I meant the very old house knocked down in the early 90's to make way for what is now Redford Rise. Thanks for the information on the Crispins cell area, I walk my dog down that way often and I have always been wondering about the history of the area.

Paddy hogan

I have a small publication put together on the area and would be glad to send it to you in PDF - if you supply me with your Email address. It has 4 chapters each less than 1M in PDF.

weebelly

You can view further information on sites like castles on www.archaeology.ie which has searchable maps etc showing exact locations.

drag0n79

Paddy hogan wrote: »

What ever happened to the Greystones Historical web site where they had several Journals published on Historical interests.

The Internet Archive is handy for finding old copies of websites.

The journals are here, online, for free:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050419170126/www.greystonesahs.org/web/journals

Paddy hogan

Thanks for Email link. Very good

---

except you can not access all pages in the Journals. Again I have Emaied the web site and asked if I can purchase same.

Thanks for your halp

nhc

Paddy hogan wrote: »

I have a small publication put together on the area and would be glad to send it to you in PDF - if you supply me with your Email address. It has 4 chapters each less than 1M in PDF.

I'm doing a local history project with my class in Greystones and would really appreciate if you could send me on ur publication thanks!!

Son of Jack

Have you seen this info re Colonel Frederick Burnaby after which so many places in Greystones are named?

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/63948

The easiest way to read it is by clicking on textview at the top right hand corner of the page.

The recommendation from Micandre above

http://www.petermcniff.com/kennedy/kennedyhistory.htm

has lots of info also.

nhc

Omigod that's so handy,thanks!

Son of Jack

His marriage to Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed was like a 'soap'!
'If you were to hear a story about an eighteen year old heiress
who married a soldier and adventurer of almost twice her age,
you might think that this was the plot of novel or film.'
Poignant ... reading between the lines.

Huntthe

Son of Jack wrote: »

His marriage to Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed was like a 'soap'!
'If you were to hear a story about an eighteen year old heiress
who married a soldier and adventurer of almost twice her age,
you might think that this was the plot of novel or film.'
Poignant ... reading between the lines.

Incert the word 'pirate' where appropriate