Old
Leighlin Road
by T. P. HAYDEN
Source of
this material: Carloviana; The Journal of the Old Carlow Society
Vol. 1.
No. 4, New Series, Dec. 1955
Pages 5
to 9.
CONFEDERATES
and
Cromwellians passed this way, as
did James II. in 1690 in his flight from the Boyne.
T. P. HAYDEN, our valued
writer who has contributed so much to the Society and to CARLOVIANA
walked in the footsteps of bygone travellers when he came across some
stepping stones near the: -
OLD
LEIGHLIN ROAD -
OLD CONSTRUCTION
MEDIEVAL roads were much
like our modern ones in one respect-all brushwood and cover was cut
away for a considerable distance on either side; this was to prevent
ambushes. They were not bordered by dykes or banks of earth as our
roads are, but consisted of a causeway with a deep ditch or drain on
either side. Because of these drains and because of the bad condition
of the highways, travellers by night had to carry lanterns, and even
then, could only travel at a slow pace. Up to the latter half of the
18th century all roads followed this pattern, and this construction is
still to be seen on old and disused roads in many parts of the
country.
TREES AND DRAINS A change then
took place in roadmaking. The drains on the roadside were placed
outside instead of inside the banks of earth bordering the roads, and
it became the fashion to border the roads with high hedges and to
plant trees for shade and ornament. The story of Ireland for over a
thousand years is one of almost continuous warfare intermitted with
short spells of comparative peace, so that almost all progress was
impossible. A spell of peace succeeded the Williamite wars at the
close of the 17th century and the legislators of the Irish Parliament
were thereby enabled to devote their energies to the material
improvement of the country.
FROM KILCULLEN In 1731 a Bill
was passed in the Irish Parliament for repairing the road from
Kilcullen bridge to Leighlinbridge. In 1743 a similar Bill was passed
for repairing and shortening the highway or road from Athy through the
coal-pits to Castlecomer and from thence to the town of Carlow. In
1752 there was another Bill for making and repairing the road from the
town of Athy through the town of Castlecomer to the town of
Leighlinbridge. In this Bill a clause was inserted to prevent the
scraping of the turn-pike roads, or laying straw or other materials
thereon for making dung or digging and taking away the ground in the
high roads on either side of the turn-pike roads.
TOLL BARS This tends to
show the condition the roads must have been in before that time. These
roads were made turn-pike roads at the periods mentioned. There were
toll bars at convenient intervals where all traffic, with the
exception of foot passengers, had to pay toll. Along these roads, at
intervals of three or four miles, were wayside inns for the
convenience of travellers. The different stretches of turn-pike road
were under the management of Boards of Trustees; Kilcullen to Carlow
formed one section, Carlow to Kilkenny another; both were under
separate management. In 1762 it was enacted that all future meetings
of the Board of Trustees of the Carlow to Kilkenny section were to be
held alternately at Leighlinbridge and in the city of Kilkenny.
CARLOW TO LEIGHLIN
The section of road from Carlow to Leighlinbridge was in 1914 a
typical example of what a main road was in 1798. Outside of Carlow one
passed the Green Dragon Inn which ceased to be a public house in the
60's of the last century. Passing Cloghna we come to Milford. This
crossroad is comparatively modern. An old map, published in the early
part of FIVE the last century, shows that at that time the bridge at
Milford and the road from Ballybannon crossroad leading to it had not
then been constructed. Ballybannon cross is the cross on the Carlow to
Bagenalstown road adjacent to Milford Railway Station. Leaving
Milford, we come to Clump Hill. This hill is now cut away, but in 1914
it was a steep descent, just such a place as highwaymen would choose
for a hold-up.
A GALLOWS Tradition has it
that such occurred here and a neighbouring hillock is pointed out as a
site where gallows was erected in olden times. At the foot of the hill
crossing a small brook was a narrow stone bridge, now replaced by a
wide modern one. The site of the bridge was locally known as the Ford
and the old ford was to be discerned beside the bridge. The stepping
stones for pedestrians were still in place. Before the erection of
bridges in such places, that would be about the middle of the 18th
century, large stepping stones were provided for pedestrians to cross
by. At the Powerstown Crossroad is an old farm-house which was a
wayside inn up to the middle of the last century. A little further on
we come to another descent and to Orchard Bridge crossing another
brook. At the top of this hill was a turn-pike bar or gate, and the
turn-pike keeper's house. Since demolished, was still standing up to
about 1914; the hill has also beer. much altered by improvements in
the '30's of the present century.
ORCHARD BRIDGE The bridge at
Orchard was, in 1914, of stone with round arches similar to the one at
Powerstown Ford previously referred to. These two bridges were
probably erected in or about 1731 when the first Bill for improving
the road was passed. The stretch of road from Orchard Bridge to
Leighlinbridge only dates from that time. Previous to that the old
road parted from the line of the present one at the Carlow side of the
stream. The steep descent of the old road to the stream beside the
bridge is still to be seen, but in 1914 the steep ascent from the ford
and the hill were as they had been previous to 1731. This was one of
the most important main roads in Ireland, and from an examination of
those two places, Powerstown Ford and Orchard Ford, one can form a
good idea of what roads were like in the early part of the 18th
century, and it is -easy to understand why six or even eight horses
were necessary to haul coaches or wains in those days.
STEPPING STONES At Orchard the
stepping stones for pedestrians are still in position. Crossing the
stream, the road proceeded up the yard of the adjacent farm, where it
is still to be seen as a farm laneway. This lane, locally known as
"the lane," leads through the townlands of Orchard and Rathellen for
about two miles and finally comes out on the Carlow to Bagenalstown
road at Rathduff. On its way it is crossed by the roads leading from
Leighlin to Nurney and Leighlin to Augha, respectively. Some short
distance above the farmyard as we proceed along the lane, there was
formerly a branch leading in the direction of Leighlin, and this was
the high road to Leighlin previous to the making of the turn-pike road
in 1731. This part of the lane has been made one with the fields and
is now not readily recognisable.
TIMBER FROM DUNLECKNEY
One must not conclude that this road was always a narrow laneway as it
is to-day. It was originally a broad road, as it still is in some
parts of its course, but when it ceased to be a public highway: was
reduced to its present limits. This old road runs in almost a direct
line towards Dunleckney Manor. This Dunleckney was. a place of some
note in medieval times. We read that in the early part of the 13th
century timber was brought from Dunleckney to Carlow for the repair of
the Courthouse roof. The Courthouse, we are told, was roofed with
shingles, that is thin boards or planks which overlapped each other
and were given a coating of hot pitch to resist the weather. Many
buildings were thus roofed in medieval times, and up to the
introduction of roofing felt about eighty or ninety years ago, there
was no other way for roofing wooden sheds. Up to a few years ago sheds
of this construction were to be seen in many places, particularly
around ports and harbours.
MEDIEVAL VILLAGE This Orchard is
in itself an interesting place. There was a village there in the
Middle Ages, and in a field, locally known as the Church Field and
traditionally stated to have been an old church yard, there is a
defaced stone which appears to have formed part of a cross, and also a
holy well, known locally as Juggy's well. There is extant a grant from
James I in the year 1613 to Geo. Bagnall of Ballymore, Esq., to hold
two fairs at Orchard, viz., the one on the Tuesday and Wednesday
before the Feast of Pentecost and the other on the Feast of St.
Matthew and the day after, unless when the said feast day falls on
Saturday or Sunday, then the said fair to commence on the following
Monday, with courts of Pie Powder and the usual tolls. The fair was
probably in existence centuries before that, and this is merely a
confirmation. Fairs were held in Orchard up to about 1850, and up to
about thirty years ago there were old people alive who, as children,
remembered fairs to have been held there. There is also a field there
known as the White Field and another known as the Horse Park Field.
The former probably received its name from the booths and tents
erected there in medieval times. There is also the remains of a flax
mill, dating from the latter half of the 18th century, of which only
the foundations remain, but which was originally two or three stories
in height. There was probably a mill there in medieval times, as the
site beside the stream is most convenient for the purpose. There
appears to have been a fair-sized village at Orchard in olden times,
as the stones built into the ditches plainly indicate.
AFTER "THE BOYNE''
I shall now ask you to accompany me, in imagination, along the stretch
of road from Orchard bridge to Leighlin. This stretch of road, as we
have seen, was made in or about 1731, at which date the older road was
disused. This older road was the one along which the Confederates and
the Cromwellians travelled in 1641, and along which the ill-fated
James II passed in his flight from the Boyne in 1690. The old ford and
the stepping stones are as they were in his day, and in Leighlin there
is still standing the old inn at which he probably stayed to take
refreshment before resuming his journey to Waterford.
ELIZABETHAN INN This old inn
which faces the present road from Carlow is a half-timbered
Elizabethan structure, and from a comparison with similar houses
pictured in old prints one would be inclined to fix the date of
erection as the latter half of the 16th century. In 1619 a licence was
granted to Nicholas Caffrie and Joan his wife, of Leighlinbridge, to
keep taverns and to sell wine and ardent spirits during their joint
lives, at Leighlinbridge and for two miles around. This Nicholas
Caffrie was probably the then proprietor of this inn. About this time
there is mention in Bishop Ram's Visitation of a priest being
harboured there by this Nicholas Caffrie.
BY BRIDGE AND FERRY
In the time of James II and up to the latter part of the 18th. century
ther was no bridge across the river below Leighlin. Travellers from
Carlow to New Ross would cross the river at Leighlinbridge, proceed
thence to Graignamanagh and cross the river by ferry at Ferry
Mountgarrett near Poulmounty. The bridges at New Ross and Waterford
across the Barrow and Suir, respectively, had not then been
constructed, and travellers had to cross by ferry at those points. The
large extent of the coast line of Waterford Harbour rendered it ideal
for persons desiring to enter or leave the country unobserved.
NOTED HIGHWAYMAN We read in the
life of James Freney, the noted highwayman, that when fleeing the
country in 1746 he embarked, under cover of night, in a ship bound for
the Isle of Man, the ship's boat being sent for him to a point on the
Kilkenny shore a little below the city. In the first couple of decades
of the 18th century, as mentioned in Dr. Comerford's history,
Kiltennel, situated in the mountainous districts near Borris, Co.
Carlow, was a refuge and resort for the hunted Catholic clergy, and it
is recorded that several important Synods and Conferences were held
there. Waterford at that time transacted a considerable trade with the
Continent, and Kiltennel was most convenient for priests or political
emissaries desiring to enter or leave the country. These few
reflections and observations upon roads and communications were given
rise to by seeing old stepping stones in a disused ford and by a quite
natural curiosity to discover something about them. The result has
been that we-I mean my readers and I-thereby obtain a fairly good idea
of old-time roads and communications in the district. Every part of
Ireland teems with similar memorials of antiquity only waiting to be
remarked upon and written about, and the resultant researches will add
much to the history and to the interest of our country to strangers
and to ourselves.
Ancient
Highways
SINCE 1914 the horse
has gradually disappeared from the roads. The roads themselves have
been changed and altered. Up to about 1914 the highways and byways
were little changed from what they had been in 1798; there were the
same narrow roads and country lanes bordered by trees and high hedges.
But our roads were not always like that. Up to the middle of the 18th
century Irish roads were very bad, and with the exception of a few
miles around the capital were quite unsuited for coaching traffic.
BEFORE SPRINGS Coaches in those
days were cumbersome affairs. Springs were not invented until the last
quarter of the 18th century, and. before that the coach body was
suspended by straps. There is an excellent example of such a
construction in the National Museum-the State Coach of a Viceroy, now
a show-piece. The ordinary travelling coach was much heavier and
stronger; it was drawn by six or eight horses, outriders being
necessary on the leading horses. When the roads were improved about
the middle of the 18th century coaches could travel with two or even
four horses abreast. About 1780 carriage springs were introduced, and
coaches were thereby rendered speedier and more comfortable.
HIGHROADS
AND CHARIOTS We gather from the life of St. Patrick that, in
his time, chariots were in common use for travelling, and the old
records tell us· that there was a network of broad highways radiating
from Tara, making communications easy and linking the several parts of
the country, the traces of which roads are to be discerned to-day. No
works deteriorate so quickly as neglected roads. During the
century-long struggle with the Danes our roads disappeared and wheeled
traffic was abandoned. With the coming of the Normans the centres of
influence and population shifted. New towns and villages arose and new
roads sprang into being, linking those centres and subservient to
military and economic needs of dominant power.
Source: Carloviana Vol. 1. No. 4, New Series, Dec. 1955 .Pages 5
to 9.