THE BIG READ: Offaly’s first tourist guide of 200 years ago

JAMES Norris Brewer (died 1829) topographer and novelist produced his Beauties of Ireland in 1825-26 in two volumes and a third was planned for Ulster and Connacht, but never published.

The second volume of the work is a description of most of the counties of Ireland and includes Laois, Westmeath and King's County otherwise County Offaly This was probably the first survey of the entire county of Offaly from the tourism viewpoint as prior to that Offaly received little notice save in books of roadmaps and a few lines from Colt Hoare and others The comments of Vallancey (1771), Artur Young (1780) and Edward Wakefield (1812) relate to the local economy.

Brewer’s Offaly chapter running from pages 130 to 158 in volume 2 is comprised of a brief description of the county as a whole followed by a survey of places in Offaly starting with Philipstown (Daingean) and moving on to Croghan Hill, Edenderry, Ballybrittan, Geashill, Killeigh, Tullamore, Durrow, Clara, Charlestown, Ferbane including Strawberry Hill, Moystown, Glynn, Doon Castle Ballycumber, Clonmacnois, Banagher, Cloghan, Kilcormac, Broughal, Ballyboy, Rathlin, Birr, Castle Bernard, Leap, Seir Keiran, Dunkerrin, Busherstown and Laughton.

When preparing his overview of the county, Brewer would have relied largely on the only county survey available which was that of Sir Charles Coote published in 1801 by the Dublin Society. He possibly did not visit the county at all and relied on contributors and the guide books of the time such as Taylor and Skinner, Book of Road Maps of 1777, the Post Chaise Companion of the 1780s. He also had available to him accounts of travellers and visitors such as Arthur Young (London 1780), Colt Hore (1806) Wakefield (1812) Atkinson (1815) and Pigot’s Trade Directory of 1824. Brewer’s chapter on Offaly is particularly interesting for its description of certain of the houses such as Clonearl, Birr Castle, and even more so the moving bog at Clara where a detailed description is provided by way of an account supplied to Brewer by Richard Griffith, later associated with the General Valuation of Ireland.

Did Brewer do any field work in Offaly?

However, Brewer’s Offaly chapter lacks the personal engagement with the owners of the ‘Big Houses’ or any worthwhile comment on the towns and villages. The focus is on the history of antiquities with brief descriptions of scenic places, the Big House and no comment on the state of Offaly or the condition of the people. Brewer was indebted to informants including antiquarian Harvey De Montmorency. He also received assistance from William Shaw Mason who compiled the Parochial Survey of Ireland which included a chapter on the parish of Clonmacnois, and, interestingly, the architects Francis Johnston and the Morrisons (father and son) all three of whom would have been familiar with some of the Big Houses in Offaly. However, there is little evidence of him getting the kind of first-hand information from residents such as would have improved his Offaly essay.

Turning to the survey of places within the county the Brewer description mixes historical and topographical and a little biographical:

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From Edenderry to Daingean

The form of Offaly’s boundaries Brewer regarded as extremely irregular and quoting Coote (1801) ‘is, from the most eastern part of the barony of Coolestown, near the Boyne, to Clonmacnois, on the Shannon, thirty-two miles [65.53 km]; but the more general breadth does not exceed seventeen [34.816]; and it is in length, from the Moat of Grenouge [Moate] adjoining West Meath, to the southernmost part of the barony of Clonlisk, thirty-one miles [63.48 by a direct line, but above forty-five miles [92.16] by the nearest road, the county being so much intersected with deep bogs.’. [The bogs were often described as moors by the travel writers and regarded as disgusting, at least until late in the nineteenth century. The Parliamentary Gazetteer (1846) put the distance from the most easterly point of the parish of Monasteroris to the Shannon half-a-mile below Shannon-Bridge as 35½ miles (57.1 km)].

With the exception of the Slieve bloom mountains, on its southern borders, this county is in general of a flat character, containing a great part of the ancient plain of Ireland. The waters produced on this cheerless plain find their way to the sea westward by the Shannon, and eastward by the rivers, Barrow, Boyne &c. The continuous bogs and levels preclude all possibility of picturesque beauty; but, in the districts more readily amenable to cultivation, much corn is grown.

This county may be described as being well watered. We have stated that the river Shannon forms its western boundary, for many miles. The little Brosna, which falls into that noble river, divides it from Tipperary; and the larger Brosna winds though the centre of the county. The Boyne and lesser Barrow glide along its eastern borders. The Grand Canal crosses its northern part, and conveys vast quantities of turf, used a fuel, to the city of Dublin.

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There are no towns of great importance, but many handsome family-seats. Amongst vestiges of antiquity, the ruins of Clonmacnois, comprising two round towers, are of primary interest. As some of the principal proprietors of land may be noticed Earl Digby, the Earl of Rosse; the Earl of Charleville; and the families of Daley, Stepney, and Bernard. [These are the Geashill, Birr, Tullamore, Durrow and Kinnitty Estates. The writer has omitted Downshire of Edenderry and included Daley or Bowes Daly who succeeded to the Coghlan estates in west Offaly. These property owners had c. 100,000 acres or one fifth of the county.]

Philipstown [Daingean], distant from Dublin thirty-eight and a half miles, [Irish miles, 77.9 km], towards the south-west, is the assize town of this county, but is otherwise a place of small importance. The Grand Canal passes close to one extremity of the town, but without communicating to it any observable commercial benefits. Here are extensive barracks, and a county gaol, completed some years back. [This is very much lifted from Coote’s 1801 survey. Daingean was more intimately described by the Poor Law commissioner Binns (1837). The assizes had been moved to Tullamore in 1835 with the completion of the new courthouse.]

At the distance of two miles from Philipstown is Clonearl, the seat of William Magan, Esq., of an ancient Westmeath family, who lately served the office of high sheriff of that county. The surrounding country presents, with a solitary but grand exception, that of Croghan hill, one dreary expanse of bog. Chiefly by the efforts of the father to the present proprietor (made at a very considerable expense), Clonearl, however repulsive in natural circumstances, has been gradually formed into one of the finest demesnes to be seen in this county. A triumph of art entitled to extensive emulation! Great improvements to the mansion are now in progress, under the auspices of the present possessor of the estate. [Clonearl House (destroyed by fire in 1846 and demolished in the 1920s) was built by William Henry Magan the elder in the 1820s. The house was in the Grecian style and may have been by the architect, William Farrell. Today only the semblance of Clonearl's former beauty remains in the old farm buildings and some mature ornamental trees. More about Croghan and Clonearl will be found in the Magan family history by the late Brigadier and Byrne (ed) Kilclonfert (1983).

Croghan Hill which rises in lonely majesty amid this flat and dispiriting, but thickly-populated, tract of country, is of great height and circumference, and is, even to its summit, beautifully clothed with verdure. At the base of the hill are the ruins of a church; and near the summit, are some traces of antiquity, described by Sir Charles Coote as "an ancient burial-place." [Croghan Hill has survived the ravages of the late 20th century and in particular a planning application in the 1970s to quarry the hill. The hill is itself the stump of an extinct volcano of c. 250 million years old. It is about 700 feet above sea level and about 400 feet above the surrounding plain. The church at the base of the hill is probably that where the graveyard still survives and known as Bishop McCaille's, McCaille's Church. For more about Croghan see Feehan’s Croghan.]

At Edenderry, a small and mean town in this part of the county, are the remains of a castle. This building is situated on a considerable eminence, and was, in the sixteenth century, the residence of a branch of the Colley, or Cowley, family, of Castle-Carbery [For more on Edenderry see the two books by Ciaran Reilly and several articles in Offaly Hertitage Journal. Brewer copied Coote (1801) but without the richer detail.

Ballybrittan, otherwise Warrenstown, Castle, near the eastern extremity of the King's County, was the ancient seat of the family of Warren, formerly very powerful in this part of Ireland. Sir Henry Warren garrisoned this fortress, anno 1600, for Queen Elizabeth. On the 13th of February, 1691, a party of the adherents of James II, headed by Lieutenant-Colonel O'Conor, took the castle of Balybrittan, which they sacked and burnt, extending their ravages, on the same day, to the neighbouring town of Edenderry. On the decease of Sir Peter Warren, K. B. who died in the command of the naval station off Dublin, in the year 1752, leaving no male issue, the estate passed to the heirs female. [Ballybrittan Castle still stands and now incorporated in a private residence is in excellent condition due the work of the late Gerry Healy SC.

Later, I plan to review Brewer’s comments on Geashill/Killeigh, Tullamore to Banagher, and from Birr to Dunkerrin.