Part 16

In 1642 Lord Castlehaven retook Lea, and at this time some of the brass money known as St. Patrick’s halfpennies was struck here. These coins have the letter L on them and are very rare.

O’Neill is said to have lodged in the castle.

The Parliamentary Colonels, Hudson and Reynolds, took and dismantled the fortress in 1650.

It was repaired and held by lease under the Crown by an O’Dempsey until confiscated after the fall of the Stuarts. In 1695 it was granted to the Earl of Meath as part of Sir Patrick Trant’s estate.

A horse stealer called O’Dempsey and nicknamed “Shamas a Coppuil,” or “James the Horse,” inhabited it at the beginning of the eighteenth century until the Government interfered.

Hampden Evans owned it in 1791, and it afterwards passed to Viscount Carlow.

The following legend was related by Widow Gorman in 1818 to Miss French of Glenmolire, and noted by her:--

Redmond M’Comon O’Byrne, chief of Donamace and Leagh, had two gigantic sons named Roderick and Maurice. The latter was married to a daughter of The O’Neill and had one son called Connell.

Upon the death of the old chieftain O’Byrne, he divided his territory between his sons, leaving Donamace to the elder, Roderick, and Leagh to the younger, Maurice.

Roderick, believing he should have inherited all his father’s possessions, determined to murder his brother.

One stormy night he set out alone from Donamace, and having tied his horse beneath a grove of ash-trees near the castle of Lea, he let himself in by the postern, with the key of which his unsuspecting brother had entrusted him.

Reaching Maurice’s chamber he murdered him in cold blood, but not before his victim had cried out to his son to revenge his death by a brother’s hand.

Roderick seized the body and, carrying it to where he had left his horse, put it into a leather bag that he had brought with him. Arriving at Dunamace he threw the body into a very deep well, thinking it would never be discovered.

Maurice’s son, Connell, had heard his father’s cry for vengeance in his dreams, but upon awaking and finding his father gone, with blood stains on the floor and stairs, he knew he had actually heard his voice.

The young chieftain, armed with two great sabres of equal size, proceeded to his uncle’s stronghold, and presenting himself before him, demanded satisfaction. In the duel which followed both combatants were killed, and it is said no grass grows in their footsteps on the rock until this day.

The old well is still shown, and if two friends visit it together one is said to die within the year.

There seems to be no historical record of the fortress ever having been in possession of the O’Byrnes.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.

Grose, “Antiquities of Ireland.” O’Byrne, “History of the Queen’s County.” MS. Ordnance Survey. Comerford, “Kildare and Leighlin.” Marquis of Kildare, “Earls of Kildare.” Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.” State Documents. State Papers. Carew MSS. Parliamentary Gazetteer. “Lea Castle, Queen’s Co.,” in _Dublin Penny Journal_. Lord Walter FitzGerald, “Kilkea Castle,” in _Journal of Kildare Archæological Society_. Miss French, MS.

_LEAP CASTLE_

The ancient stronghold of the O’Carrolls, of Ely-O’Carrol, is situated in the parish of Aghancon, in the Barony of Ballybritt, King’s County, about five miles south-east of Birr.

Its former name of Leim-Ui-Bhanain denoted “The Leap of O’Banan,” and it is still known as “The Leap” in the district.

There are several legends to account for its designation. One is that two brothers came to the rock on which the castle is built, and they decided that whichever of them survived, after leaping to the ground below, should erect the stronghold. One of the two was killed by the jump.

Another story of a leap is told of a period long after the castle was built. Sometime during the sixteenth century the O’Carrolls’ fortress was besieged by the English forces, and in a sortie the garrison took prisoner a young Captain Darby, who was with the attacking party. The room where he was imprisoned in the castle is still shown. The daughter of the chief was deputed to carry him his food, which was delivered through a hole in the wall. But the young Englishman made good use of his slender opportunities by winning the heart of the Irish maid, so that she connived at his escape by unbarring his prison. When running down the stone stairs which led to the cell in which he had been confined, he met her brother coming up, who raised the alarm regarding the escaping captive. Nothing daunted, young Darby turned and

ascended to the battlements, where, it is said, he leaped from the castle roof into a large yew-tree, the roots of which have only lately been removed. That the young couple were eventually married is a satisfactory ending to the romance, and certain it is that Leap Castle passed to the Darby family as the marriage portion of an O’Carroll’s daughter who married a Darby, son of an English knight.

The castle is supposed to have been built by the Danes prior to the English invasion, during their conflicts in these parts with the more recently landed Norwegians. The structure resembles their form of defence, being of pyramidical shape, and built in the rubble masonry of that period, with pre-Norman arches and small loopholes for the discharge of arrows and javelins. The walls vary from 15 to 25 feet in width. There are several stone stairways in the thickness of the walls, and parts of them are brightly polished from constant use. The keep is the oldest construction, and it forms the hall of the present edifice. The wings, one at each side, were built at the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century. That on the north-west connects what is known as the “Priest’s House” with the main building. This dwelling is of fourteenth-century masonry, and was used as the chief residence of the family in times of peace.

In the top of the keep is situated what is known as “The Bloody Chapel,” having been desecrated by one Teige O’Carroll, who murdered his brother before the altar. It was formerly covered with a stone roof, but this gave way last century. A curious old stone-fastening remains that formerly received the bar of the door.

Off the chapel is the oubliette, formerly supplied with a spring death-trap. Not so very long ago three cart-loads of bones were removed from it and buried in consecrated ground. Bits of several old watches were found among the remains.

Large dungeons are situated below the keep, and there are many bricked-up passages and secret chambers. One of the former is said to lead to a neighbouring rath. The guard-room on the south-east side is hewn out of the rock. Numerous bones have been found in different parts of the building.

The site of the castle was evidently chosen to guard the river ford and the pass of the Slieve Bloom Mountains into Tipperary. Many bones have been found in a field near the river. A village once surrounded the castle, but only the ruins of the houses now remain.

The O’Carrolls, whose chief stronghold the castle was, are supposed to have wrested it from its original builders, the Danes.

In 1154 Henry II. granted Ely O’Carroll to Theobald de Walter, but he was entirely unable to take possession of any but the lower portion of the kingdom.

In 1489 John O’Carroll died of plague at Leap. The visitation was at this time so bad that hundreds of bodies lay unburied.

Gerald Fitz-Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland, set out for Leamyvannan in 1513 to put down a rising of the O’Carrolls. He failed to take the castle, “as was seldom the case with him,” and retreated to collect fresh forces.

Returning with a splendid company he was shot by an O’More while watering his horse at the River Greese, near Kilkea, and he died a few days later at Kildare.

Three years afterwards his son attacked Leap, and took the stronghold, of which it is recorded, “there was scarcely any castle at that period better fortified and defended than this, until it was demolished upon its warders.”

In 1522 the Earl of Kildare made it a charge against his rival, Sir Piers Butler, Lord Deputy, that he had lent O’Carroll cannon to defend Leap against him in 1516. The charge was hardly denied, but the defence was put forward that the attack on O’Carroll was unwarranted.

Mulrony O’Carroll died at Leap in 1532. It is recorded that he was “a triumphant traverser of tribes; a jocund and majestic Munster champion, a precious stone, a carbuncle gem, the anvil of the solidity, and the golden pillar of the Elyans.”

He was succeeded in the chieftainship by his son, Ferganainm, but the succession was disputed by a senior branch of the family who were in possession of Birr. Ferganainm enlisted the aid of his father-in-law, the Earl of Kildare, who received a wound during the dispute which hurried his end.

It was, no doubt, at this time that a terrible massacre took place at Leap Castle upon the rival branch of the sept, who had been invited to the stronghold under the guise of friendship. Lord Deputy Grey may have had this act of treachery in his mind when writing of O’Carroll, Baron of Ely, in Edward VI.’s reign, he speaks of him as “false.” It is stated that this O’Carroll made submission to Lord Leonard Grey in 1537.

Twenty years later (1557) the Earl of Sussex, Lord Justice, made a hosting into Fircall, penetrating into Ely, where he took Leap Castle. But this expedition seems, mainly, to have been directed against the O’Connors, who had taken refuge there after their escape from Meelick Castle, and “the goodness of his steed” is said to have saved O’Connor from his pursuers, who took the Leap without opposition. O’Carroll became re-possessed of the stronghold shortly afterwards.

There was a Jonathan Darby, Captain of Sussex Horse, in 1553, and perhaps it was during this expedition that the romance before related took place. A tomb in the neighbouring graveyard records the death of a Jonathan Darby in 1601.

It is said an inquisition was called at Lemyvanane in 1568 for the preparation of a deed by which Ely O’Carroll was surrendered to the king by “Sir William O’Kerroll,” to whom it was restored by letters patent, but there is some confusion about the dates and conditions of the several transfers.

In 1604 Ely O’Carroll was annexed to the King’s County.

During the Parliamentary wars, Mr. Darby, of Leap, espoused the King’s cause, and tradition avers that Cromwell appeared before the castle saying that if they did not surrender in twenty-four hours he would blow them out with a pump-stick. The fortress was not tenable in the event of cannon being used, as it is commanded from many points.

A weird story is told of the Jonathan Darby of the time, usually known as “the wild Captain.” It is said before he surrendered the castle he collected all his money and treasure and with the aid of two servants hid it somewhere in the walls of the fortress. He then sent one of them for his sword and in the meantime threw the other over the battlements. Upon the messenger returning he slew him with the weapon he brought, evidently thinking “a secret is only safe with three when two are dead.” Later he was arrested on a charge of high treason and imprisoned in Birr. He was several times reprieved, and at last liberated, his legs having mortified. Upon his return he was only capable of murmuring “My money, my money,” but was quite unable to say where it was concealed.

In 1691 a Captain Darby, of the Leap, is alleged to have committed many deeds of daring against rapparees. It would appear that the estate was mortgaged for a nominal sum to one John Holland for fear of confiscation, for Charles II. re-granted the land to this Holland as mortgagee.

Admiral Darby, who commanded the _Bellerophon_ at the battle of the Nile, 1798, was one of the Darbys of Leap.

The present owner is Jonathan Charles Darby, Esq., D.L., who resides in the castle.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.

Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.” Cooke, “History of Birr.” Cooke, “Picture of Parsonstown.” G. Story, “Impartial History of Ireland.” R. Bagwell, “Ireland Under the Tudors.” J. Brewer, “Beauties of Ireland.” Parliamentary Gazetteer. Lord Walter Fitzgerald, “Kilkea Castle” (_Kildare Archæological Society’s Journal_).

_LEIXLIP CASTLE_

The castle is situated in the portion of Leixlip which extends into North Salt Barony in the County Kildare. The fortress occupies a commanding position at the juncture of the Rivers Rye-water and Liffey, above the famous Salmon Leap from which the designation Leixlip is derived, being a Danish name from the old Norse word “Lax-hlaup,” _i.e._, Salmon Leap. From the word “Saltus,” a leap, the baronies of Salt have also taken their name.

The castle is generally supposed to have been erected by the De Hereford family towards the close of the twelfth century. The present building consists of two blocks at right angles, facing east and south. The east wing probably incorporates part of the twelfth-century keep, and with the north-east circular tower represents the oldest portion of the structure, although it has been pierced by modern windows.

In this part a room is still shown in which tradition states that King John slept during his stay in Ireland.

The square south-east tower is not so old, and its erection is generally ascribed to the Geraldines.

The lands of Leixlip were granted to Adam de Hereford by Strongbow shortly after the Normans arrived in 1170. At the close of the thirteenth century the castle and lands had passed to the Pypards. In 1302 Ralph Pypard surrendered all his castles, &c., to the Crown, and in consequence Richard de Bakeputz, who was constable of Leixlip, was ordered to deliver it up to the King.

Leixlip Castle was included in the list of those fortresses that were only to have Englishmen as constables by the statute passed in 1494.

Henry VII. granted the castle and lands to Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, upon his marriage with Dame Elizabeth Saint John, between the years 1485 and 1509, and they remained in the possession of the FitzGeralds until the rebellion of “The Silken Thomas” in 1534, in which the owner, Sir James “Meirgach” (_i.e._, the winkled) FitzGerald was concerned. In 1536 an Act was passed by which the Crown became possessed of the castle and manor.

Two years after Mathew King, of Dublin, surrendered the castle, which appears to have been granted to him for twenty-one years. In 1568 William Vernon, gentleman, was leased the manor of Leixlip, containing castles, &c., by the Crown. Nine years later Sir Nicholas Whyte, Master of the Rolls, came into possession. He was a son of James Whyte, of the County Waterford.

In 1570 he was granted the manor of Leixlip, two castles, a water-mill, a salmon-weir, two fishing-places called the Salmon Leap, on the River Anna Liffey, Priortown Meade, and other demesne lands. Two years later he was made Master of the Rolls.

Sir Nicholas Whyte was succeeded by his son Andrew, whose son was again Sir Nicholas Whyte, Knt.

This Sir Nicholas held the manor of Leixlip upon the breaking out of hostilities in 1641. In company with Lord Dunsany, Patrick Barnwall, Sir Andrew Aylmer, and other chief men of the Pale, he surrendered himself to the Lords Justices Parsons and Borlace. This was done in obedience to the King’s proclamation to show that they had no part in the rebellion, but they were imprisoned in Dublin Castle and most inhumanly treated.

In the diary of Captain William Tucker he records going from Dublin to Naas in 1641 with the Marquis of Ormond, and sleeping a night in Leixlip Castle. He mentions that the owner, Sir Nicholas Whyte, was at the time a prisoner in Dublin.

In 1646 General Preston established his chief quarters in the fortress, and in November of that year the Confederate Catholics halted in their march on Dublin between Leixlip and Lucan. They were commanded by Generals Preston and Owen Roe O’Neill. The King’s secretary and minister, Digby, was at Leixlip with Preston.

Plots and counter plots among the Confederate commanders made the once formidable army of no avail. Owen Roe, fearing some treachery, threw a wooden bridge across the Liffey, as a flood had destroyed the permanent one, and withdrew his forces into Meath.

Sir Nicholas Whyte recovered his lands of Leixlip by a Decree of Innocence. He died in 1654, and was buried at Leixlip.

Various historians have confused the fortress popularly called Leixlip Castle with a stronghold of less note designated the “Black Castle” of Leixlip, situated at the eastern end of the town. Although still known as the “Black Castle” this building has been so modernised that its original fortified structure is not noticeable.

That some discrepancies as to ownership existed in the written history of Leixlip Castle was first noted in 1901, but it was not until the following year that Lord Walter FitzGerald, in a note in the _Journal of the Kildare Archæological Society_, gave an extract from “The Civil Survey” of James Peisley and Henry Makepeace of 1654, in which the “Black Castle” of Leixlip is mentioned as belonging to the Earl of Kildare and “one ruined castle” to Sir Nycholas White, thus establishing the fact that there were two distinct castles at Leixlip owned by different persons.

The “Black Castle” is therefore no doubt the fortress alluded to in an inquisition held in September, 1612, which states that Gerald FitzGerald, son of Gerald, late Earl of Kildare, and uncle of Gerald, late Earl of Kildare, was seized of one castle, three messuages, one ruined water-mill, and forty acres of arable land at Leixlip. And again in 1621 the inquisition taken upon the death of Gerald, 15th Earl of Kildare, includes the Castle of Leixlip, &c. While the rental of the Earl of Kildare in 1657 mentions the black castle of Leixlip with sixty acres of land valued at £15 a year.

Leixlip Castle was purchased by the Right Hon. William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He subsequently built the mansion of Castletown at Celbridge, but his nephew and heir occupied Leixlip Castle during the famine years of 1740 and 1741.

After this period the castle has been inhabited by many distinguished tenants.

It was a favourite residence of Primate Stone, and during Lord Townshend’s period of office he usually passed the summer there.

Many stories are told of this Viceroy’s fancy for mixing incognito with “all sorts and conditions of men.”

One day Lord Townshend met a journeyman cutler named Edward Bentley in the demesne of Leixlip Castle and began to talk to him. Bentley was loud in his praises of the Lord Lieutenant’s kindness in allowing the public into the grounds of his residence, but he was equally vehement in denouncing the political views he held.

Mistaking the proprietor for one of the retainers, he offered him half a crown upon leaving, and when it was refused the cutler commented on the difference between his action and that of the gate-keeper who had demanded that amount.

Lord Townshend then took him to the castle and provided him with a cold repast, but as he was escorting his departing and grateful visitor through the hall the unfortunate gate-keeper came in.

The Lord Lieutenant asked him why he had dared to disobey orders and receive money from visitors. Whereupon the man fell upon his knees and asked pardon. Bentley, at last realising who had been his entertainer, immediately followed suit. Lord Townshend sent for his sword, and the cutler was quite certain that his last hour had come. The Lord Lieutenant flourished the weapon over his head and brought it down smartly on the terror-stricken man’s shoulder, saying, “Rise, Sir Edward Bentley.” The new-made knight was appointed cutler to His Excellency, and lived long to enjoy his honour.

Viscount Townshend’s wife died at Leixlip Castle.

The Hon. George Cavendish remodelled the building and brought it up to modern requirements during his tenancy before 1837.

John Michael, Baron de Robuck, subsequently lived there, and was drowned in the Liffey in 1856 during a flood.

In 1878, Captain the Honourable Cornwallis Maude, son of the Earl of Montalt, took the castle after his marriage. He was killed at Majuba Hill.

The present occupier is William Mooney, Esq., J.P.

This fortress is one of the oldest inhabited houses in Ireland. It has been said that the novelist Maturin founded one of his weird plots on a legend relating to Leixlip Castle, but the statement requires verification.

An underground passage runs from the castle, beneath the Byewater, to St. Mary’s Church, where it terminates in a vault under the building, the end being now walled up.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.

Lord Frederick FitzGerald, “Leixlip Castle,” and Lord Walter FitzGerald, Note, in _Journal of the Archæological Society of the County Kildare_. Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries. “History of St. Wolstan’s,” in _Irish Builder_ for 1899. P. (Petrie?), “Town and Castle of Leixlip,” in _The Irish Penny Journal_. Parliamentary Gazetteer. Book of Survey and Distribution. Calendar of Patent Rolls, Ireland. Book of Inquisitions of Province of Leinster. Fiants of Elizabeth. Transcripts of Inquisitions. MS. Ordnance Survey of Ireland.

_LISMORE CASTLE_

This castle takes its name from a rath now known as Round Hill, _lis_ meaning “fort,” and _mor_ “great.” It is situated on the right bank of the River Blackwater, about four and a half miles north-by-east of Tallow, in the county of Waterford.

When Henry II. visited Lismore in 1171 he seems to have formed the plan of turning the ancient and famous Abbey of Mochuda into a fortified episcopal residence; hence in 1179 Milo de Cogan and Robert FitzStephen were sent by his directions to choose the site for this stronghold, which was to act as a protection against the “mere Irish.”

In all probability the tapering tower, now known as “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Tower,” formed part of the ecclesiastical buildings. It is constructed of rude rubble, and has plain loops and cornices. The entrance is on the second floor, and this leads into buildings of later date, so that it has no external doorway. A somewhat similar tower was destroyed by fire prior to 1864, which may (with the one now standing) have protected a gate between the upper and lower courts.

The outer wall, with its beehive-roofed bastions at the corners, and the old gate, which has its archway decorated with chevrons, are likely to have been of twelfth-century construction.

The entrance to the castle is by “the Riding House,” so called from its having formerly been guarded by two mounted sentries, the niches for the horses being still shown. This leads into a long shaded avenue, flanked by high walls which extends to the opening of the lower courtyard. Over the gate are the arms of the first Earl of Cork, and the motto “God’s Providence is our inheritance.” “King John’s Tower” is situated to the right of the entrance, and the “Carlisle Tower” on the left. This latter is about 240 feet in height, and was erected to commemorate the Lord Lieutenancy of the Earl of Carlisle. It is constructed of coarse rubble. The stone for the dressing of its windows and for other parts of the castle was quarried at Chatsworth, and brought over in specially chartered vessels.

The “Flag Tower” flanks the north-east angle, and the oldest wing faces east towards the garden. The upper court is reached through a passage on the west of the entrance, and here Sir Walter Raleigh’s tower is situated to the north.