The village of Bullock,
with its remains of an ancient castle, and pier of Danish erection,
commands a grand view of the Bay of Dublin. In 1307, the advowson of
the rectory and vicarage of this place, consisting of fifteen acres,
was granted to the prior of the Monastery of St John the Baptist, Dublin,
by Sir John Asyk, then Lord of "Boulek"; and certain religious houses
in the City were entitled to receive from every fishing boat entering
the harbour, one of their best fish, herrings excepted; and from every
herring boat a meise annually.
The village of Bulloch was
formerly defended by a fortified castle and watch towers. A great portion
of the wall that connected the barbican with the castle is still perfect.
It also had a bawn of considerable extent. Grose in his "Antiquities
of Ireland", states that he could not discover who constructed this
castle, which was formerly of an octangular -shape, with few windows,
and surmounted by a granulated parapet. Some writers suppose the castle
of Bullock to be coeval with those of Dalkey. The ancient family, "Fagan
of Feltrim", were the owners of Bullock and the adjoining lands. In
1611, John Fagan was possessed of one castle, one ruinous tower, thirty
messuages, ten acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture and furze, with
the fishing and haven to the main sea. In a survey of 1654, it states
that Bulloch, in the parish of Monkstown, containing ninety acres,
of which sixty were arable, twenty-three rocky pasture, and seven meadow,
was the property of Christopher Fagan, of Feltrim. At that time, there
were, on the premises a fine slated castle, a good haven, and bawn;
the chief fish, tithe fish, custom fish, and corn tithes, belonged
to the proprietor of the castle.
The King Henry 1V's son, Thomas of Lancaster, landed at the old Danish pier
of Bulloch, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1402. Bullock was included, in
1448, as one of the places on the bounds of "the four obedient shires". In
the year 1559, the earl of Sussex landed at Bulloch haven as Lord Deputy of
Ireland.
The whole district is an inexhaustible bed of granite.
Goshawks were found, in the last century, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Bulloch. Ware in his "Antiquities of Ireland", says. Among the feathered kind,
there breed in Ireland eagles - hawk, which, from their preying upon wild geese,
are called in English goshawks, of which those that breed in the north of Ireland
are reckoned the best."
There was formerly at Bulloch one of those remarkable rocking stones, which
are asserted to have been used for divination by the pagan priesthood of Ireland,
and are additional evidence of the eastern colonisation of this country, being
identically the same as the boetylia - the animated stones of the Phoenicians,
mentioned by historian, as moving or rocking in the air. It is supposed the
Bulloch rocking-stone was destroyed at the same time as the Druids Circle on
Dalkey Common disappeared.
About the year 1797, on that part of the common opposite Dalkey Sound near
Bulloch, stood a circle of granite blocks in a rough state, enclosing within
its area a cromlech. At that period the upper stone or slab had slipped off
the perpendicular rocks or pillars which originally supported it, except at
one end where the passage was still left sufficiently wide under the upper
flag. The stones were over-grown with fern.
When the Martello towers were being erected, the stones composing the ring,
which were from ten to fourteen feet square, together with the cromlech, were
blasted and quarried, under the special direction of the late General Fisher,
who had the management of the line of military stations then being erected
between Bray and Dunleary, along the Coast. The antiquarian or lover of Ireland's "bygone
days" must ever regret this destruction of an interesting relic of antiquity,
so worthy of preservation; and this vandalism was perpetrated with the miserable
object of obtaining some few hundred loads of stone, comparatively of little
value.
Bulloch, Dalkey, Killiney and Rochestown, were favourite places of resort,
during the "long vacation", by O'Connell, whose remains were recently removed
from their temporary tomb at Glasnevin to the magnificent mausoleum, erected
from designs by the late Dr. Petrie.
GASKINS IRISH VARIETIES
DALKEY FORMER TRADE, COMMERCE- THE LEARNED AND FACTIOUS "knight of innishowen" etc.
Dalkey, a beautiful picturesque spot - a fashionable watering -place the junior
Scarborough of the Irish Sea - Dalkey, a rising and prosperous township, where
peace and harmony prevail in its municipal councils - health- abiding Dalkey
that woos the sigh of the southern gale with so much effect - Dalkey, with
its pure and salubrious atmosphere, limpid springs, holy wells, religious educational
institutes, and gorse- crowned hills, on one of which is perched a Danish ruin-
Dalkey, within half an hours drive of the Irish capital, with its "Coliemore
Harbour", of historic associations, granite quarries, lead mines, and well
arranged baths- Dalkey, whose marine terraces and villas of rural beauty, with
their appropriate Irish names, are securely "moored in the rifted rock"- Dalkey,
a fitting home for convalescents
Dalkey, the Port of the Seven Castles, was a place of great importance, and
emporium of the trade of Ireland with France, Spain, and Holland.
In an enrolment of the 33rd of Edward 3, dated February 8th 1358,it
is stated: "The Provost and Bailiffs of the town of Dalkey were commanded to
allow the master of a Spanish ship arrested by them to depart".
It is stated in Hollinshed's Chronicles of the early
part of the 15th century; that Dalkey and Wicklow were amongst
the chief haven towns of Ireland"
Up to 1610, no part of the river Liffey to the eastward of the present site
of Essex-bridge, (Capel Street Bridge) was embanked. Its waters often approached
within a few yards of Trinity College. The Liffey, the Dodder, and Ballybough
rivers (the present Tolka), were often altered in their course by land floods
and storms, which exceedingly embarrassed the navigation of the channel. Up
to this period(1610), when the quay embankments were commenced, all foreign
vessels discharged their cargoes at the Port of Dalkey, which at the time was
also a well-frequented resort of shipping engaged in the international commerce
between this country and Great Britain.
The trade of Dalkey gradually declined after the Liffey
embankment had been completed.
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