The exposed chamber of one of the tombs, with the larger cairn topped by an Ordnance Survey point in the background

On Saturday (15th March 2014) we visited Seahan, another of the megalithic tombs of the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains. At Seahan [sometimes spelled as Seehan] you can find the remains of two large stone cairns. They probably date to the Neolithic period, around 5,000 years old, a time when people first began to clear the ancient forests to create fields for farming. They are thought to be the remains of passage tombs, a type of burial monument that appears as a round mound of stones or earth, ringed by large stones set on their edges to form a kerb. Parallel lines of upright stones formed a passageway leading to a chamber which usually contained the remains the dead. 

One of the cairns on Seahan has a very clear kerb of stones surrounding it, but it has been disturbed, possibly in antiquity. It is situated adjacent to a larger cairn that has an ordnance survey point added to its summit. Its possible that some of the stones of the exposed tomb were used in the construction of this large cairn. Archaeologist Christiaan Corlett suggests that perhaps this raises some interesting questions about the relationship of the two tombs – perhaps the people constructing the larger cairn deliberately ‘slighted’ the older tomb to construct a new larger cairn. Perhaps as a way of symbolising their ascendancy over the people who are interred within the smaller tomb and their descendants who built it.

The Ordnance Survey point that has been added to the top of the larger cairn on Seahan.

The cairns on top of Seefinghan (left) and Seefin (right) visible from the tombs of Seahan

Seahan appears to be part of an extended series or cemetery of passage tombs that cover a number of peaks in the area. From Seahan you can clearly see the cairns on top of Seefingan and Seefin. Building these tombs so high in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains must have been an incredibly difficult undertaking in the Neolithic period even though there is an abundant supply of stone on top of the hills. The peaks of these hills are all around 650m – 750m above sea level, so why would they have constructed these elaborate and large stone tombs up here? 

Expansive views over Dublin from the summit of Seahan

We can never say with certainty, but perhaps like a lot of cultures around the world, they believed that to be buried in these high places was to be closer to their gods. Personally though, I think that it was a statement of ownership over the landscape. From this high vantage point the whole of South County Dublin and Wicklow is visible. Green fields, rivers, lakes. Perhaps they believed that any newcomers to this fertile territory would see the very visible tombs in the distance and know that the people living here have done so for millennia. Or maybe they believed that by placing their ancestors far above the low lying lands of the living, the shades of their forebears could watch over them from their tombs. For those interested in prehistoric archaeology, or those who love a bit of hillwalking, or those who just want to see some of the finest views in Ireland, Seahan is a real must-see. 

The Famine Cross, take the road to the left of this monument.

I strongly recommend you use OSI Discovery Series Mapping Numbers 50 and 56 to help you find the tomb easily. To get there exit the M50 at Junction 12 Firhouse. Travel on the R113 towards Oldbawn. Take the left turn for the R114 signed for Bohernabreena. Continue straight on this road, staying right at the slight fork at Bohernabreena. Drive past the golf club on your left and take the road to the left of a famine cross you will see on the left hand side of the road. Continue on this road for about 5 minutes. On a clear day you will see Seahan on top of the mountain to your left and Seefin and Seefingan ahead. Seahan is separated from Seefinghan and Seefin by the Army Rifle Range, if you see signs for that you have gone too far. There is a parking area below Seehan in front of large boulders. Park here and walk along the path. Take the first left on this path - this will lead you up to the summit of Seehan. We had great weather for our visit, but I wouldn’t recommend the trip in poor conditions. It was about a 25–30min fairly easy stroll up the Mountain to the site, but good boots are recommended. Above all though, please do be aware of the Army Rifle Range and respect their warning signs! 

If you'd like to support us please check out our acclaimed series of audioguides to Ireland’s heritage sites, they are packed with original music and sound effects and a really fun and immersive way of exploring Ireland’s past. They are available from www.abartaheritage.ie.
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Some Sources and Recommended Reading:

Corlett, C. 2012. The Megalithic Tombs of South Dublin, Archaeology Ireland Heritage Guide No.57. (Wordwell, Ireland)
Cooney, G. 2000. Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland (Routledge, London)
Waddell, J. 2000. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland (Wordwell, Ireland)

All photographs and text © Neil Jackman / www.abartaheritage.ie

The stunning landscape of the Dublin Mountains, like a different world and less than 30mins from Dublin!

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The interior of the 19th century part of the church

Every now and again a heritage site really surprises me. We were out on Friday looking at sites in the North County Dublin / Fingal region, and we really enjoyed visiting the town of Swords with it’s fine round tower and castle. After a lunch stop at Malahide Castle, we decided to stop at a church called St. Doulagh’s that was nearby. We thought it would be a ten minute stop but we were extremely lucky that we bumped into Victor, who works at the site and he gave us a fascinating guided tour of a truly remarkable building. 

The medieval font

St. Doulagh’s is still used as a Church of Ireland place of worship, and on first entering the church it appears as a very nice, but not particularly unusual place, with fine oak vaulting on the ceiling and the stately but welcoming feel typical of a lot of Church of Ireland buildings. However the first clue of the buildings antiquity was the plain medieval baptismal font that is still in use today. And when we were led into the vestry in the old part of the church, the sheer history of the building became very apparent. 

A medieval piscina and fragments of a medieval sculpture in the vestry

A monastery is believed to have been founded here by the little-known, seventh century anchorite hermit Saint Doulagh. However the earliest historical reference to the church dates from the ninth century, in the Martyrology of Oengus. In that text the church is called Duilech Cain Clochair. The site has many of the features of an early medieval monastery, in the 1980s excavations by the archaeologist Leo Swan discovered a number of burials and the enclosure ditches that once surrounded the monastery. 

The church building is a fascinating mish-mash of a number of different periods, and it can be extremely difficult to work out which features date to what period. The eastern end of the building is thought to be the earliest. It has a very steeply vaulted stone roof and has a croft or living quarters for the monks. It is a little reminiscent of the vaulted stone roof of St. Kevin’s Church at Glendalough, or St. Colmcille’s House in Kells. This part of the building is thought to date to the twelfth century, making St. Doulagh’s the oldest stone-roofed church still in use as a place of worship. The tall central tower is thought to have been added in the fifteenth century, and you can access a number of the rooms from the exceptionally narrow spiral staircase

The very narrow spiral staircase

In the entrance hall there is a small ‘hermit’s cell’ which is reputed to be the burial place of St. Doulagh himself. From there you can access the handsome 19th century church that adjoins the older building. 

In the grounds of the churchyard you can find a lovely octagonal building covering St. Doulagh’s Holy Well and it is a charming and atmospheric spot. The interior was covered with frescoes in the early seventeenth century, painted in 1609 by a Mr Fagan, of Feltrim, though Victor the guide informed us that they were destroyed in the aftermath of the Williamite Wars. 

Just behind this well you can find another well dedicated to St. Catherine. It appears as an underground bath enclosed by a rectangular vaulted building, but this one is unfortunately not accessible at present. Just on the outside of the site near the entrance you can find an early medieval plain granite cross on a modern stepped-base. This was said to have been moved from the inside of the churchyard in the late 18th century. 

I strongly recommend a visit to St. Doulagh’s, it is a really fascinating building with a great atmosphere. St. Doulagh’s church is located at Balgriffin, on the Malahide Road, some 600 metres north of Balgriffin Cemetery. It is on the bus route 42 or 43 from Dublin City Centre.

St. Doulagh's Well

The early-medieval granite cross

Tours are available from May to September on Sundays from 2.30pm - 5.30pm. Tours can be arranged at other times for school, families, historical societies and heritage groups by contacting The Friends of St Doulagh's, see their website for more details: http://www.fingaldublin.ie/interior-pages/activities-attractions-amp-conference/castles-churches-and-towers/st-doulaghs-church/

I hope you enjoy our blog, and if you have any suggestions for historical sites you’d like me to cover please do get in touch at info@abartaaudioguides.com. If you'd like to support us please check out our acclaimed series of audioguides to Ireland’s heritage sites, they are packed with original music and sound effects and a really fun and immersive way of exploring Ireland’s past. They are available from www.abartaheritage.ie.
If you’d like to receive daily updates and images of great heritage sites then please consider following us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Some Sources and Further Reading

Baker, C. 2010. Antiquities of Old Fingal (Wordwell, Dublin) 

Harbison, P. 1982. St. Doulagh’s Church (in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 71, No. 281)

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Last Saturday we visited the infamous Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill, just south of Tallaght in County Dublin. The Hellfire Club is steeped in stories of dark events and the occult. It was built by the famous Irish politician William Speaker Connolly in 1725 as a hunting lodge, however this building wasn't the first structure on the hill. In the foreground of our header picture you can see a low grassy mound with some large stones, this could be the remains of the Neolithic passage tomb that William Connolly is said to have had destroyed to clear the land for the lodge. Looking at a Google Satellite image of the Hellfire Club, you can clearly see traces of the circular earthworks that formed the Neolithic tomb, judging by its comparative size to the building it would have been a very large example of a passage tomb. 

Image from Google Earth showing the large circular earthworks, traces of the large passage tomb that once stood here

It would have also had extensive views over County Dublin, and its prominent location is similar to that of Seefin Passage Tomb located nearby in County Wicklow. The tomb features in the first supernatural tales associated with the building. It is said that shortly after the tomb was destroyed and its stones used in the construction of the Hellfire Club, a strong wind blew and demolished the fashionable slate roof of the new building, presumably in retaliation for the desecration of the ancient burial site. Undeterred Connolly had a new roof constructed, this time from a strong arch of stone that still stands today.

Connolly died in 1729 and the lodge lay unoccupied for a time before being acquired by the Hellfire Club. This was a group notorious for excess and depravity. They had famed drinking bouts, during which they always left one chair empty in honour of the devil. They drank a mix of melted butter and whiskey called scaltheen, and various accounts of them and their practices abound. I have read accounts that they poured this scaltheen mix 

over a black cat then set the poor animal alight as a precursor to their evenings revelries and devil worshipping. Another account tells of a priest who had been told of the satanic worship, he arrived at the club during one of their sessions to see them all gathered around a table, at the head of which sat a large black cat. The clergyman recited prayers of exorcism and threw holy water at the cat which ‘tore the beast apart’. Creepy stuff indeed, and you thought the television show Love/Hate was cruel to poor moggies! There are even darker stories of murder and sacrifice, of a young woman who was killed by being rolled down the steep hill in a burning barrel. The building was burned either on purpose to give it a more hellish appearance, or as an accident, when a poor footman accidentally spilled drink on the Principal of the Hellfire Club’s coat, he reacted by pouring scaltheen over the footman and setting him alight, the poor man tried to flee but bumped into tapestries, setting the whole building ablaze. According to this tale, many of the members of the Hellfire Club burned alive as they were too drunk to escape. 

 
With the Hellfire Club largely destroyed by the fire the members relocated down the hill to the nearby Stewards Lodge which also has a grim reputation with more tales of apparitions and ghoulish goings on.

When we visited there wasn’t much in the way of anything supernatural happening (well apart from a lot of kids running around shrieking, they kind of dulled any spooky atmosphere a bit but they were terrifying in their own way). Inside the building there are a number of rooms with fireplaces, arched windows and connecting galleries. The architecture is very unusual and it is well worth a look. Probably the most disturbing thing about the site is the unfortunate extensive graffiti and vandalism, there is no doubt it is still used as a place for excess and boozing, I suppose it’s just keeping up the tradition set by the original Hellfire Club!

The views over the landscape are incredible, and there is a nicely set out walking loop around the hill so it is a popular place for walkers and dog owners.

The site is about 15mins or so drive south of Tallaght on the R115. It is well signposted with a large carpark (please be careful not to leave any valuables on display in your car) and follow the well made path up all the way to the site.  If you like to use Google Maps enter Mountpelier Hill, South Dublin as your destination. Latitude 53.2518611 Longitude -6.3303444.

If you have a suggestion for a site I’d love to hear it, please let us know by dropping us a line at info@abartaaudioguides.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+, where you can keep up with daily pictures and information about Ireland's wonderful heritage sites.

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Incredible views over Dublin from the top of Montpelier Hill

Have you ever wondered how Dublin got its name? Or where medieval Dubliners went for a pint? Read on to discover just some of Dublin’s medieval past that is still visible today!

Imagine you could travel backwards in time in Dublin, and strip back the glass, metal, concrete and tarmac of the modern city to replace it with timber, wattle, thatch and stone to see what Dublin was like over a thousand years ago.

Dublin is a city of two names, the first of which comes from the early medieval period. There was a natural island in the middle of the River Liffey which became the main crossing point of the river. At low tide the river at the island became so shallow that mudflats were exposed, the early Dubliners lay down interwoven branches of saplings over the mudflats and these mats or hurdles allowed people and animals to cross the river and gave the area it’s Irish name Ath Claitha - The Ford of the Hurdles. This original fording point of the Liffey is thought to be located close to the Brazen Head pub which is on Bridge Street, close to Merchant Quay.

Prior to the Viking settlement, a monastery had been established close to where Trinity College stands today. The monks called the area Dubh Linn, Gaelic for Black Pool, as a large murky pool formed where the River Poddle met the Liffey. The Vikings kept this name, calling it Dyflinn in their Norse language, when they chose this spot to be their first Longphort or overwinter camp in 841 AD. The Vikings chose this area as it possessed many natural defensive advantages. This first overwinter camp laid the foundations for the development of the modern city of Dublin.

A tenth century Viking returns to Wood Quay to find a few changes....

Wood Quay

The site that is synonymous with Viking Dublin is Wood Quay. Once the heart of one of the largest Viking settlements in the world, unfortunately much of this settlement was lost forever when Dublin City Council constructed the large concrete offices of the Dublin Corporation Offices. The story of Wood Quay was a long and complicated issue involving archaeologists, politicians, local councillors, international experts, senators, the courts and over 20,000 outraged members of the public. The fight to save Wood Quay continued throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s but ultimately the development went ahead.

So why was the site at Wood Quay so important? The preservation of the archaeology at the site was almost unparalleled, and it offered amazing insights into the Viking and later Norman settlement. The archaeologists discovered quay fronts where the ships used to moor to offload their goods, numerous houses, shops, and craft and textile manufacturing areas and a large amount of artefacts that informed us about what people ate, how they dressed, how they worked and even how they lived and died in Dublin over a thousand years ago. Many of these artefacts are now on display at the National Museum of Ireland, on Kildare Street.

The Viking settlement excavated during the Wood Quay saga mainly represented the second phase of Viking settlement in Dublin dating to the tenth and eleventh centuries.
A feature of the site was the many waterfronts and revetments which held back the waters of the Liffey, and the old Norse wall which has been reconstructed and is on display within the civic offices.

Winetavern Street, Fishamble Street and Cook Street

Winetavern Street is one of many street names that tells us what was happening in this part of Dublin during the Viking, Hiberno Norse and medieval periods. One of the most common finds from this area of the Wood Quay excavation was tavern tokens. They look like small coins but are units of currency and could be used in the taverns that used to line this street during medieval times to buy a cup of wine or ale. These taverns developed during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Fishamble Street gets its name from all the fish markets that were once held there. It is an ideal location for a fish market due to its proximity to the LIffey, and Cook Street was the area of Dublin where all the bakers sold their breads, pies and pastries. They had to sell their goods outside of the city walls as so many fires would have posed a considerable risk to the city with its tightly packed timber houses.

A late twelfth century Norman foot-knight at Cook Street

On Cook Street you can find a surviving portion of the medieval walls that once enclosed the city, with the only functioning medieval gate in the city walls at St. Audoen’s Arch. This wall has been modified over time, particularly in the early twentieth century. It now runs for 90 metres and stands approximately 7 metres in height. The original wall is thought to have been commissioned by the great Brian Boru’s grandson – Muirchertach O’Brien in around 1100 AD. After the Anglo-Norman captured Dublin at the end of the twelfth century, they quickly began a programme of refortifying the old viking walls. They also reclaimed large areas of land from the Liffey. This area was once prosperous and settled by wealthy merchants. The large gateway you can see at St. Audoen’s allowed them to access the port and their warehouses.








St Audoen’s Church

St. Audoen's Church

Constructed at the western side of the medieval city wall, St. Audoen’s dates to the late twelfth century, although it may stand on the site of an earlier church as a ninth century graveslab was found on the site. The church was dedicated to St. Ouen (or St. Audoen) of Rouen, the Patron Saint of Normandy. The church was extended and modified many times over its history. The first phase was completed by around 1200 AD. The church was a simple two celled design, with a nave and a narrower chancel. The entrance of the building was through the decorative moulded doorway that was carved in a typical late-Romanesque style. In the early years of the thirteenth century, the second phase of the church saw the chancel and nave combined to create one large room.

The next phase in the early fourteenth century saw major modifications at St. Audoen’s, with the development of an elaborate four bay arcade creating a new nave that nearly doubled the size of the church, following that a fifth bay was constructed in the arcade and a new chancel. The original Romanesque doorway was moved to a recess in the western end of the church where it can still be seen today. In the fifteenth century a four storey bell tower was constructed at the western side of the church. This tower houses large bronze bells, one cast in 1423, making them the oldest church bells still in use in Ireland. Extensive excavations of the site were carried out in the 1990’s and they revealed a wealth of information about the site. Today St. Audoen’s is an OPW heritage site and is a wonderful (and free) place to visit. For opening hours see here http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/dublin/staudoenschurch/

Christchurch Cathedral

Christchurch and St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Christchurch Cathedral was originally founded in around 1028 AD and was commissioned by the Hiberno-Norse King Sitric Silkenbeard after he had completed his pilgrimage to Rome.
St. Laurence O’Toole was elected abbot of Dublin in 1162, and became instrumental in saving Dublin City from being sacked by the Anglo Normans, who had been employed by the King of Leinster, Diarmuid Mac Murrough as mercenaries to win back his lands from rival Irish Kings. Laurence was a reformer and strongly believed the Irish church needed to be modernized and changed. He worked diligently from Christchurch and attended many negotiations with the key political figures of the time. In 1180 St. Laurence succumbed to a long illness while on pilgrimage in France. His body was buried in France, but his heart was sent back to Ireland. Encased in a heart shaped iron box it became one of Irelands most famous relics. Laurence was canonized as a saint 45 years after his death and the relic of his heart was placed in Christ Church cathedral with sprigs of mountain heather from Glendalough around it. It survived many persecutions, the most serious being the Reformation which was initiated by Henry VIII in the 1540s. Henry ordered that all relics in Christchurch be taken to Skinners Row (across the road) and burned. Many famous relics were destroyed including the true staff of Jesus which was famed throughout the country for its healing powers, yet Laurence’s heart remained untouched, until March 3rd 2012 when it was stolen from the Cathedral. Its whereabouts are still unknown. In the 1180’s the Christchurch that we are familiar with today began to take shape. John Cumin, the first Anglo-Norman arch bishop, had Christchurch reconstructed in stone in the fashionable Romanesque style of the time.

For entry fees and opening hours please visit http://www.christchurchdublin.ie/Visitors/Visitor-Information.htm\

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Dublin is rather unusual as it has two cathedrals situated very close to one another. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was constructed on the site of an earlier church in the twelfth century and consecrated as a cathedral on St. Patricks Day 1254. Like Christchurch, St. Patricks has changed dramatically over the centuries, particularly in the nineteenth century when the Guinness family carried out a programme of conservation and renovated and reconstructed the crumbling building into the fine cathedral it is today, see http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/index.aspx for more details.

Dame Street

Located on the very eastern most edge of the medieval city, Dame Street takes its name from a large dam that was constructed here across the River Poddle in the medieval period. This dam maintained the depth of water around the Castle and city walls.

Medieval Dublin was small, it was said that you could walk from one side of the city to the other in less than ten minutes, but despite its small size it was densely packed, by the thirteenth century it was thought that the population of Dublin exceeded 10,000. Wealthy Dubliners lived in tall houses that could reach three stories in height. The tall houses made the streets dark and dank, with no rubbish collection people simply threw their waste out of the windows. The streets would have been full of dogs, cats, rats and pigs feeding off the waste. Such unsanitary compact living led to epidemics like the Black Death breaking out and causing devastation to medieval Dubliners. A particularly bad outbreak in 1348 is thought to have killed hundreds. People were buried in mass graves in an area of Dublin still known as the Blackpitts today.

Dublin Castle

The area on which Dublin Castle stands today was part of the early Viking settlement in Dublin. As the population grew, the Vikings constructed a fortified wooden fence or palisade to protect the settlement from raids from the neighbouring Gaelic Irish kingdoms.

Dublin Castle

After the Normans seized control of Dublin, King Henry II visited his newly acquired territories. He left forty of his knights to defend Dublin. They refortified the south-eastern corner of the old Viking fort, the area that faced onto the pool in the River Poddle. The original Norman defences were probably an earthwork castle rather than stone, but in 1204 the King ordered a stone castle to be constructed on the site. There was a great need for strong defences for Dublin. The growing settlement was surrounded on all sides by Gaelic kings and chieftains who would relish the chance to raid this settlement of foreigners. This was highlighted by a savage attack that became known as Bloody Monday. On Easter Monday in 1209, a number of the Anglo-Norman citizens of Dublin ventured out to an area known as Cullenswood where modern Ranelagh stands today. They hoped to enjoy the weather, spending the afternoon picnicking and hunting in the fresh air away from the cloying stink of the city. Unbeknownst to them, a band of Gaelic warriors, probably led by the O’Byrne and O’Toole families, saw their opportunity and descended on the unaware citizens. They massacred around 500 people in a bloody and savage attack.

Following this the work on the city defences was accelerated, with the Castle being completed by around 1230 AD. The castle was surrounded by a deep moat, with imposing high stone walls and large circular towers at each corner. The Castle has changed dramatically from its medieval origins. It was severely damaged by a fire in 1684, and was largely demolished in the eighteenth century to make way for today’s castle. Only one tower from its medieval past still stands above ground, and the Black Pool which originally gave Dublin its name has now become the Castle gardens.

A FitzGerald halberdier from the sixteenth century

These are just a few of the echoes remaining of Viking and Medieval Dublin. We have produced an audioguide to help navigate you around the City and to highlight in more detail the incredible heritage that still surrounds us. Our guide is packed with original music and sound effects, and helps to bring to life the story of the early Dubliners. It costs just €1.99 and is available from http://abartaaudioguides.com/our-guides/viking-and-medieval-dublin-audio-tour (follow the link for a free preview). If you’d like to discover more about Medieval Dublin I recommend paying a visit to the superb (and free to enter!) National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street, and Dublinia opposite Christchurch, where you can come face to face with Dublin’s medieval past.

This is the first of my articles on cities, heritage towns and villages. If you know of a great site near you please leave a comment below.

The historical re-enactment photoshoot was with Claíomh. All photographs © abartaaudioguides.com.