120 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and fisheries. 1 We need not follow any further the history of the De Courceys, 2 

 but only that of Olderness. The " great sea-rnark " figures in the early maps. 

 Angelino Dulcert gives Cap Yeio (Old Head) in 1339. Other maps give it 

 as Cap Yeco, 1360 : Cauo Yeyo, 1375 : Cap Yeio, 1460 ; C. Yicio, 1513, and 

 C. Antiquo in 1518 ; there is no break in the records as Old Head from 1292 

 to our day. The family residence was more usually at Einrone or Castle 

 Park, places on the harbour of Kinsale and the Bandon Paver. 3 The 

 De Courceys, like many other Xprmans, adopted the Irish name and customs, 4 

 and called themselves MacPatrick, whence the ring fort near Old Head is 

 called Lisviepatriek, and the Castle on the Head, Dunniiepatrick. It was 

 probably in the fifteenth century that they added the three towers and the 

 long cross-walls to the fosse and ramparts of Dun Cearmna. The great cliffs 

 haunted-by the eagle and falcon 5 defended it on all other sides, and the nearly 

 overhanging hill had no terrors where even medieval siege engines were 

 unknown. The family fortunes fell to their lowest ebb under Elizabeth ; the 

 castle, which Sir Henry Sidney had described in 1576 as " one of the 

 fortifieablest places that ever I came in, ; ' was mortgaged by Lord Gerald with 

 " the manor of Down McPatrick alias the Old Head of Kynsale." He was fined 

 and pardoned for this in 1587. 6 His successor John, the " sixteenth " Baron, 



1 Carew MSS., vol. vi, 21/, 36 6 ; Calendar, last vol., p. 371. 



2 The succession of the Lords was— 1 (possibly), Milo, 1204, 1233 ; 2, Patrick, 1260 ; 

 3, Nicholas, 1280; 5. John (perhaps not "Lord"); 6, Miles; 7, Miles, died 1359; 

 8, John, d. 1387 ; 9, William ; 10, Nicholas, died 1430 ; 11, Patrick ; 12, Nicholas, died 

 1475 ; 15, David ; 16, John, died 1535 ; 17, Gerald, 15b9; 18, John, 1628 : collaterals ; 

 20. Patrick had twenty-three children, died 1663 ; (his grandson) 24, Gerald, d. s. p. m. 

 1759. After this I find no record of their residence at the Old Head. 



3 Castle Park, replaced by King James' Fort, a most interesting modern ruin, well 

 worth study. The Hardiman map, circa 1602, shows "Lord Coursey's" castle on the 

 south bank of the Bandon river, far above Rinrone, with a fine park. 



4 So did the Geraldines ; the succession of the Earls of Desmond was virtually by 

 tanistry. John, Lord de Courcey, who died 1358, had married an O'Brien of Thomond. 



5 Smith, voL ii, p. 320, notes that the Earl of Kinsale, living at the Old Head, 1750, 

 had an eagle from the cliffs, more than 7 feet across the wings. It is a mere (but curious) 

 coincidence that the family arms have three eagles displayed. The seal of Patrick, 

 eleventh Lord (circa 1450), has a two-headed eagle displayed. Giraldus (Expug. Hib., 

 lib. ii, cap. zvii) mentions the arms of John de Curci — "pictas in clipeo aquilas." So 

 the Kinsale family wore their arms with a difference in about 1430-50. It occurs on a 

 deed of a later Lord Gerald, 1559. As to the falcons of this coast — there is a lawsuit 

 (Plea Rolls, No. 117, an. xi Ed. II, mem. 18) ; John, Bishop of Cork, in 1318, im- 

 pleaded YV. fitzDavid de Barri, who "cum sequela sua n falcones, lauer. formel. in 

 quod, nido ip. epi, vi et armis, contra pacem, cepit et asportavit." Philip Roche, 

 June, 1535, sent a merlin, two falcons, and a sparrow-hawk to Thomas Cromwell, Earl 

 of Essex, from Kinsale. For the seal "Sigillum Patricii filii Nicholai Courcey," see 

 Cal. Carew MSS., last vol., p. 360. 



Cal C^ren- MSS., last vol., December, 1600, p. 500. 



