1117 



WICKLOW. 



WICKLOW. 



1118 



are held yearly ou the village green, where is a detached rock, from 

 the summit of which a good view of the surrounding country is 

 obtained. Newbridge is a hamlet and post-town on the Uvoca, about 

 5 miles N. from Arklow. There are a Roman Catholic chapel and a 

 tourists' hotel ; and in its neighbourhood Castle M'Adam church, the 

 lead-mines of Ballymnrtagh and Cronbane, a number of mansions and 

 villas, and some of the loveliest scenery of the county. New/own- 

 Mount-Ktnneily i* small market- and poet-town on the mail-road to 

 Wexford, about 10 miles S.W. from Bray : population, 717. There are 

 a church, a market-house, a dispensary, a loan-fund office, and a 

 school-house. There are six yearly fairs. Petty sessions are held 

 monthly. The town is chiefly noticeable as being a central station for 

 tourists. Redcroa, a Tillage and post-town on the road from Rathdrum 

 to Arklow, about 6 miles N. from the latter town : population, 267. 

 There are a church and the ruins of another church, two schools, a 

 diipensary, and a police station. Petty sessions arc held monthly, 

 and there are seven yearly fain. Slralford-upon-Slaney it a small 

 manufacturing, market- and post-town, about 4 miles S.W. from 

 Donard : population, 237. This town is of modern origin, having 

 been founded in 1790 by the then Earl of Aldborougb, after whose 

 family name it was called. The town chiefly consists of one principal 

 treat, having in the course of it two large open spaces, one an oval, 

 the other a square, which latter the main street crones diagonally ; 

 there are two or three smaller streets branching from the main street 

 at right angles at the open space*. It contains a neat church, and 

 chapel* for Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. Near the town is a 

 fever hospital. Tinahdy, about 52 miles S. from Dublin, is a market- 

 and post-town on the road from Rathdrum to Carncw, about 8 miles 

 S.W. from Aughrim : population, 562. The town was destroyed in the 

 insurrection of 1 70S, and has since been neatly rebuilt, partly at the 

 expense of Earl Kitzwilliam, the lord of the manor. It consists of 

 three street* meeting in the market-place. There are a market and 

 court-house, a police barrack, a bridewell, and a dispensary. There 

 are also a large flour-mill, a tannery, and a soap manufactory ; and 13 

 yearly fairs are held, chiefly for cattle and pigs. The quarter malinn 

 for the district are held here, and petty sessions are held monthly. 



The county returns two members to the Imperial Parliament. It 

 is in the Leinster circuit. The assizes are held in the town of Wicklow, 

 where are the county jail and an infirmary. Quarter sessions are held 

 there, and at Arklow, Bray, Baltinglaas, and Tinahely, which last two 

 towns have each a bridewell and infirmary. Petty sessions are held 

 in 14 places. The district lunatic asylum, which admits 27 patients 

 from the county, is in Dublin. The fever hospitals are at Arklow, 

 Bray, Delgany, Enniskerry, Newtown-Mount-Kennedy, Stratford-on- 

 Slaney, and Wicklow. There are 20 dispensaries in the county. 

 Arklow, Baltinglast, and Bray have saTings banks, and there are loan- 

 funds at Baltinglais, Imail, Kiltegan, Moyne, and Wicklow. The 

 union workhouses are at Baltinglass, Rathdrum, and Shillelagh. The 

 county is in the military districts of Dublin and Kilkenny. The staff 

 of the county militia is stationed at Arklow. The police force, num- 

 bering 232 men and officers, has its head-quarters at Wicklow, and is 

 uted over six districts, comprising 34 stations. In September, 

 1S52, there were 71 National schools in operation in the county, 

 attended by 3463 male and 8304 female children. 



Hatory and Anii'/uitirt. This county appears to have been included 

 in the dominions of the Cauci of Ptolemacus. The Slaney was perhaps 

 the Modonos of Ptolemans, and the Ovoca may be safely identified 

 with the Uboca of the same writer. In the Anglo-Norman invasion 

 (1169) the city of Olendalongh was taken without resistance, and 

 plundered and burned. In the division of lands among the invaders 

 Wicklow was assigned to Maurice Fitzgerald. In the division of Lein- 

 ster and Minister into shire* by King John, what is now the county of 

 Wicklow was included in that of Dublin, and was not formed into a 

 aepante county until the government of the lord-deputy Sir Arthur 

 Cbichrster, in the reign of James I., 1605. The native septa appear 

 to have preserved a precarious independence in the mountains ; of 

 which the separate continuance of the bishopric of Olendalough for 

 nearly 300 years after the attempt of the Anglo-Norman government, 

 with the aiil of the Pope's legate, to suppress it, is an indication. 

 Castles were built to restrain them, but with little effect In the time 

 of Elizabeth, Pheagb, or Feagh M'Hngh, chief of the O'Byrnes, was 

 in rebellion against the government, but in 1596 he was defeated, and 

 in 1597 slain. The natives joined in the great insurrection of 1641, 

 and were in the sequel subdued by Cromwell in his march toward 

 the south. 



In the insurrection of 1793 the Wexford insurgents entered the 

 county from the south, but were beaten at Arklow by General Need- 

 ham and Colonel Skerrett : this was one of the most important actions 

 of the war, as it prevented the insurgents from advancing upon Dublin. 



The principal intiquitie* that have not been noticed in the localities 

 where they occur, are those of Qlendalough, or more properly the 

 | Seven Churche*, as the former name is now applied to the glen, which 

 we have 'already described. 



In this valley St. Coemgene, Kelvin, or Kevin, a young man of noble 



, horn A.D. 498, took up his abode, and afterward* founded an 



abbey, un<ler the invocation of St. Peter and St. Paul, over which he 



presided as abbot and bishop. St Kelvin died in 618, aged 120, and 



nis festival is kepi on June 3rd. The abbey suffered much in subse. 



quent years. It was burned once or twice by accident, and repeatedly 

 sacked or burned by the Danea or others. Notwithstanding these 

 disasters the religious establishments in the glen went on increasing, 

 and^the jurisdiction of its bishops extended even to the walls of Dublin. 

 About the middle of the 12th century the ecclesiastics began to desert 

 the place, and the see was united iu 1214 to that of Dublin. The see 

 however continued to exist either by usurpation or papal appointment, 

 and the bishops were supported by the natives. Denis White, the last 

 titular bishop, resigned his claims in 1491, and the see has been ever 

 since united to that of Dublin. The ruins of many of the ecclesiastical 

 buildings remain. The easternmost are the ruins of the priory of St. 

 Peter and St. Paul, otherwise the priory of St. Saviour, on the south 

 side of the united stream of the Glenealo and Glendassan : the priory 

 has been a building of more elegant design and richer embellishment 

 than any other building in the valley, but the remains are very imper- 

 fect. On the opposite or north side of the stream, a little more to the 

 west, are the ruins of Trinity church, sometimes called Ivy church, 

 from its being overgrown with ivy. A short distance west of Trinity 

 church is a small paved area, said to have been the market-place of 

 the city, with a base of masonry on which the market-cross is said to 

 have stood. From this area a paved causeway, the remains of which 

 may be traced in several places, formerly led up the valley of Glen- 

 dassan : trace* of a road leading up the valley of Glendalough may 

 also be seen in one or two places. To both these roads the name of 

 St Kevin's Road is given. Closo to the market-place the river Glen- 

 dassan is crossed by a ford and by stepping-stones ; there was anciently 

 a bridge ; and opposite to the market-place, on the south side of the 

 Glendassan, on the tongue of land between that and the Glenealo, arc 

 the ruins of the cathedral and of several other churches. The ruins of 

 the cathedral, of what is called the Priest's Church, of a ' cloigtheach," 

 or round tower, and of several crosses, are in an inclosed burial-ground, 

 entered, immediately on crossing the Gleudasson, by a gateway with a 

 semicircular arch. The remains of the cathedral consist of parts of 

 the nave and choir; the nave was 48 feet long by 30 feet wide, and 

 was united to the choir by a semicircular arch, now fallen down. Tho 

 semicircular east window of the choir, adorned with a chevron 

 moulding, and having on its imposts sculptures of some of the tra- 

 ditionary adventures of St Kevin, and three windows on the south 

 side of the nave, remain. The crosses in the graveyard are mutilated ; 

 one of them, formed of a single block of granite and neatly sculptured, 

 is supposed to be the market-cross, removed from its base in tlio 

 market-place. The round tower is in the north-west corner of tho 

 grave-yard ; it is 15 feet in diameter at the base, and tapers very 

 gradually to the summit: it ii 110 feet high. Originally it was 

 crowned by a. conical roof, but that is gone. Since the publication of 

 Mr. Petrie's ' Essay on the Rouud Towers of Ireland,' there is a growing 

 belief that these remarkable buildings were erected by the Christian 

 ecclesiastics who were settled in Ireland at a very early period. Mr. 

 Petrie thinks they were intended to serve at once for keeps, or places 

 of security from marauders, and for belfries. In the iuclosures which 

 immediately adjoin the graveyard of the cathedral is a church with a 

 stone roof, commonly called St. Kevin's House, or St Kevin's Kitchen, 

 by far the most perfect of all the ancient buildings in the valley. It 

 is nearly 23 feet long and 15 feet wide inside, and has a semicircular 

 vaulted roof, with an opening into a small round tower or belfry, 

 covered in with a conical cap rising 45 feet from the ground, similar 

 to those of the ancient round towers. Tho roof of the church is a 

 high-ridged roof externally, rising 30 feet from the ground ; at the 

 west end of the church is a small chapel of somewhat later date, with 

 a roof of lower pitch. The sites of two other churches may be traced 

 in this and the adjoining inclosure. A short distance westward from 

 the cathedral are the ruins of Our Lady's Church, a small building of 

 more ornamental character than most of the others, and covered with 

 ivy, from which circumstance it is sometimes called Ivy Church. 

 Scattered in the valley are the remains of stone crosses and two or 

 three small earthen forts. On the bank of the Lugduff Brook, which 

 flow* into the upper lake, in the midst of a plantation, are the ruina 

 of Refeart or Rhefeart Church, On the south side of the lake are the 

 ruins of another church called Templeuaskellig, or Teampall-ua-Skellig, 

 otherwise Dysart-Kevin. A small chapel or crypt near the abbey 

 church, discovered in the latter part of the last century, is supposed 

 to have been the tomb of St Kevin. St. Kevin's. Keep and St. Kevin's 

 Well, in the neighbourhood, are connected by tradition with the saint. 



WICKLOW, the capital of the county of Wicklow, a market- and 

 post-town and seaport, in the parishes of Kilpoole, Drumkay, and 

 Rathnew, is situated on the right bank of tho tcstuary of the Vartrcy, 

 which here forms a small port, in 52 68' N. lat, 6 3' W. long., about 

 20 miles S. from Bray, 32 miles S.S.E. from Dublin. The population 

 in 1351 was 3141. 



Wicklow is supposed to have been occupied as a naval station by 

 the Ostmen or Danes before the Anglo-Norman invasion. Maurico 

 Fitzgerald, one of tho Anglo- Normnn invaders, began to build a castle 

 here. In 1310 the town was burned by the Irish. In 1375 the town 

 was put into a state of defence by one of tho Fitzwilliams, in whose 

 family the constableship of the castle long continued. In the early 

 part of the 16th century the castle and town were occupied by the 

 native sept of the Byrnes, but were soon afterwards surrendered by 

 them to the English government. 



