Michael's models imagine Kilcullen monastic sites
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| Michael O'Connell with his Old Kilcullen model. |
Models of New Abbey and Old Kilcullen created by a retired GP provide some interesting potential insights into when both locations were monastic settlements, writes Brian Byrne.
The models were built by Dr Michael O'Connell, born and reared in Kilcullen and, in retirement from practice in Newbridge, now using his time to indulge his passion for local history.
His particular interest in the former Franciscan monastery at New Abbey has led him to believe that he has discovered the location of the original church there, which is not where the more recent one was up until more than a century ago. And though he emphasises that there is a degree of imagination in his models, his work is nevertheless well founded in research of old documents and maps.
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| The New Abbey model. |
The monastery at New Abbey, which has been a graveyard for Kilcullen since the late 1800s, was established in 1486 at the behest of Roland Eustace, Baron of Portlester, and officially suppressed in 1539. A mill operated by the monks was served by two streams, flowing from the Mile Mill direction further to the east. The monastery's church was later damaged by fire, and stone from it was used in the building of New Abbey House in the 18th century.
Michael believes the last remains of the original church were cleared for a new entrance avenue for New Abbey House in the second half of the 19th century. The house is the centrepiece of today's New Abbey Stud operated by Juddmonte Farms for the recently-deceased Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The replacement, smaller, church had been built in the Penal times in an area at the end of the lane which today leads down to the graveyard, in a space that now marks the resting places of some of the oldest Kilcullen families as well as a number of priests of the old parish.
Descriptions of the finding of two skeletons during the removal of the last of the original church elements, when the new avenue was being constructed, reinforce his conviction that two churches were in different places.
From studying contemporaneous sketches of buildings on the estate, and old estate maps along with the first Ordnance Survey maps published in the mid-1800s, Michael is very sure that he has pin-pointed where the original church was. Ideally he would love to have a geospatial survey conducted at the location, but that's probably not going to be possible for security reasons at the stud.
In his research on the monastic settlement of Old Kilcullen, established around 460AD either by St Patrick or by one of his bishops, Michael had fewer documents to go on. But there are references to its importance up to the arrival of the Normans, when it was said that it was at the conjunction of seven roads, including the main one from Dublin to the south. He found references to 'two arches' at either end of the settlement, which he presumes were at the entrance and exit of Old Kilcullen on that main road. "It's likely they were taken down when the Bianconi coach service began, as they were too small for the coaches to pass through," he says, noting also that there was a toll gate in the settlement for the turnpike to the south.
The original settlement had begun to decline after it lost its bishopric status and became part of the Diocese of Glendalough, eventually being diminished to a mere parish. The building of the first Liffey bridge at what is modern Kilcullen, in 1319, was also the start of further loss of importance.
The original monastic settlement and its subsequent growth has always led to the belief that it was a walled town, though no evidence of stone walls have been discovered. However, the wall might just as easily have been a wooden palisade, or even only a ditch delineating the town boundaries.
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| The Old Kilcullen model. |
Michael O'Connell pored over a range of maps and references to try and work out the extent of this boundary. Again admitting that he has used a degree of imagination, he took a map description of a stretch of 'double ditch' to establish what may have been a 450-metres length of a south-west boundary. He also figured in 'gate' points on existing and former roads to the settlement. The result is a lozenge-shaped 'walled' Old Kilcullen that is arguably as logical an outline of the original settlement as any.
Recent LIDAR laser surveys of the area may well throw further light on just what Old Kilcullen was shaped like in its earlier days, and a geospatial survey is also in preparation. But the labour of fascination carried out by Dr Michael O'Connell may well be as accurate as anything we get from the latest technology.
Where he scores over that tech is with a very human skill … the ability to imagine.
