THE ROUND TOWER
The ancient Round Tower of Killeshin was
destroyed at the beginning of the XVIIIth century. The record of this
wanton vandalism reads:
“Monday 8th March. 1702/3 the steeple of
Killeshin, undermined and flung down by one Bambrick, employed by
Colonel Wolseley in three days’ work. At three o’clock in ye afternoon
ye steeple fell to ye grounds, being measured it was 105 feet high”
And thus it came to pass that the venerable
Round Tower that had cast its shadow over twenty generations of the
ancient barony folk of Sliabh Mairge, was wantonly destroyed.
Sir Thomas Molyneux, who made a tour of
Ireland in 1709 and who visited Killeshin from “Cousin Best’s at
Knockbeg.’’ Now Knockbeg College, writes: “Near the foot of the mountain
on this road stands the old church of Killeshin, which is a very old
building. Here lately stood, over against the door of the church one of
the old round Steeples, which, I am told, was very high and well built,
so that when the owner of this place had it fallen, it came to the
ground in one solid piece, and was not even by the fall against the
ground so broke but that several vast pieces yet remain sticking
together so that you easily discover what this building was. It plainly
appears to be of the same building and age as the adjacent church, and
this was certainly an Irish building as appears from two inscriptions on
each side of the door as you enter, which I transcribed.’’
On 16 December I 838 Petrie wrote to
O’Donovan:
“I have read your account of that most
interesting church of Cill Oissean . . . I grieve that the inscriptions
are more mutilated than I had supposed . . . and that many of these
mutilations are recent. There can be no doubt that these inscriptions
are coeval with . . . the church and ... the round tower, for according
to a writer in Ware’s Antiquities these buildings were of the same age”
Petrie then refers to the barbarian who had
the tower pulled down, one Colonel Wolseley, for which act of vandalism
the "Protestant Bishop of Leighlin was very displeased with him. This
Col. Wolseley got estates in that part of the country after the
revolution of 1688 and they are still in possession of his descendants,
one of whom is a baronet. I will hand him down to posterity with
additional honours, in my work on the Round Towers of Ireland. The
Tower of Cill Oissean was a high one and from the elegance of the
contemporary church to which it belonged. I should not be surprised if
it had been raised, as you state, on four small pillars. The thing is
quite possible and the effect would have been singularly striking.
I quite concur with you that this church and tower were erected in the
12th century, though it is most probable that the church occupied the
site of an earlier ecclesiastical edifice. I had caused drawings of the
church and doorway to be made for me some years ago when the
inscriptions were more perfect than now and it is from these drawings of
the doorway that I got my first clue to the date of the church.
About the same time (1708) the chancel arch of the church and a great
part of the south wall were also demolished. It is said that the latter
contained two round-headed windows, widely splayed on the inside and
similar to those yet remaining on the north wall.”
Yet Dr. O’Donovan wrote: "I never saw nor
heard of a Round Tower which stood on pillars. I incline to the belief
that it was a real Cloighteach, coeval with the doorways, but I think
that the pillars mentioned as having supported it might have been added
in later times when the lower part had become holed". Adjoining
the old church in Castlequarter is an extensive mound about thirty feet
high and surrounded by a deep fosse. A castle is said to have stood here
and to have been pulled down about 1791. There is or was a tradition
that a large town extended from Killeshin to Sletty. Sir Charles Coote
in his Statistical Account of Queen’s Co. states that a town stood at
Killeshin in modern times: that at Killeshin were the (‘n. Gaol and
Courthouse where the Assizes were held: also the Governor’s mansion, a
fort and public buildings. The elevation on which the Church of the Holy
Cross stands was called Cnoc an Chrochaire or Gallows Hill. 0’ Donovan
however thinks ii. highly improbable that there ever was anything like a
large town at Killeshin.
The Cut of Killeshin is a strange artificial
curiosity on the former road to the collieries. It is a pass through a
lofty hill over half a mile long, from ten to forty feet deep according
to the rise of the ground. Formerly it was not more than tour feet tour
inches wide cut through the solid rock, so that cars had barely room to
pass through. The constant flow of water and the friction of the
cartwheels brought about this extraordinary excavation. The carrier as
he approached the gap at either end shouted loudly and the sound was
clearly conveyed to the other end. Should the carts have met within the
cut, the driver of the empty cart was expected to back out. In recent
years the Cut has been widened by the Co. Council in order that two cars
may pass.
The humble chapel which preceded the present
church of the Holy Cross stood at the crossroad of Clonmore on the road
to Carlow. Opposite the site of the old chapel was the Spa of Killeshin,
the healing qualities of which are eloquently set out by
Dr. Francis Hayden in his pamphlet, the
Medical Mentor 1. A small shed which belonged
to the Spa is there still.
Notes
1. Medical Hall, Carlow. 1822.
Comerford, Collections I.
Source: 'The Parish of
KILLESHIN, Graiguecullen'. by P.MacSuibhne. 1972.
