Exploring Medieval Slane-Finding a Hidden Hermitage, Castles & Church Ruins. [34:44]

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to another video. So this week we are in Slain County M and we’re going to be checking out all of the medieval sites around the area. I think I seen like a good portion of them. So I really enjoyed making this video for you guys. I’m going to tell you like the order in which we see everything. And I’m also going to leave timestamps in the description so that you can like skip to whatever bits it is you want to see. Although I would advise you to watch it all ‘cause I had a lot of fun and I thought these were all very beautiful places.

So, we’re going to start at Colongill Castle in Ortown, which I discovered completely by accident. And then we’re going to go to St. Irk’s Hermitage, which again I had to locate and it was a whole ordeal, but I found it in the end and it’s absolutely beautiful. And then we’ll visit Slain Abbey, which is the main monastic foundation of St. Urk. And then after that we go to Dunmo Castle and finally Fenor Castle. So everything will be timestamped in the caption so you can just skip through to see whatever you want to see. And yeah, I think let’s get started with the video.

So I’m literally just on the way to St. Urk’s Hermitage right now. And along the way we just spotted this. So I looked it up and this is Clongill Castle. It is in Orus Town, County Me. Clongill Castle is a combination of two houses, a medieval tower house with two round turrets and a two-story gabled house added in the 16th or 17th century. I thought that this was a nice drawing of the castle showing you what it looked like in 1865. It was drawn by George Victor Denoer. So we can see that it was already in a ruinous state by 1865.

The building is associated with the White family. So it’s recorded that a number of members of the White family were erectors of the parish of Orustown. And in the early 17th century, a woman called Jane Netville married Christopher White of Clongill, which is interesting to me because in my last video at Dou, if you guys remember, there was a big red building next to Dou Passage tomb. Now that is the Netterville Institute. So that is a sort of Gothic style building and it was the residence of the Netville family. So in the early 17th century Jane Netville married Christopher White of Clongill. So there we have some overlap between my last video and this one. But of course Castle is not far from Dow the passage to him both being, you know, along the river Bo.

I’m so lucky I just stumbled across this. I literally just spotted it on the side of the road. How cool is this? Getting into the castle looks pretty promising to be honest. There’s some graffiti in here. So obviously people regularly visit. Yeah. And people were obviously lighting fires in here as well. I’m literally so lucky that I just found this here. I’m so grateful all the time for living in Ireland. It just feels like the most magical country ever. I’m sure everyone feels like that about their country, but I always just stumble across things randomly and they always have such significance. Um, so I’m very, very lucky. But then again, you reap what you sow and you get back what you put in. Um, so I think these sites kind of come to me at this point, which is really nice. You have to care for and nourish the landscape and be kind to it and everyone around you to be able to, you know, feel the fruits of the labor by being rewarded with beautiful sites like this.

In Irish, Clongill Castle is called Cashlon Cloon Angal, which means the castle at the meadow of the foreigner. I also found some folklore associated with Clongill Castle. So, this comes from the National Folklore Schools collection, and it was recorded in the 1930s. So, it says that there was an old man living with his wife near the old castle. There was an old well near the ruin, and the old man usually came to draw water late in the evening. He happened to be later than usual one winter evening. When he came to the well, he was met by a big black dog with eyes of fire. The man was brave and he tried to hunt him away, but the dog would not move, but kept his eyes fixed on the man. The man filled his can of water and started for home, but the dog followed him. The man thought it was an evil spirit, so he blessed himself, and the dog disappeared and was never seen again. I found this story really cool because as I was standing here, there was actually a big black dog right behind the castle.

Something that looks like a dungeon. Pretty cool. It’s just full of rubble, it seems, though. It looks as though someone was sacrificing something. Okay. Okay. A little scared ‘cause I didn’t look and realize that I’m standing in a load of bird feathers. So, that is kind of freaky because I did not notice the carcass anywhere. Oh my god. Okay, I think it’s fine. I thought for a second that maybe I was accidentally standing on a bird carcass. I would say likely that a fox or something may inhabit this dungeon.

And this is his work. The sun has gone in a bit, so you can see the detail a lot more clearly here. But we can see a big chimney in the center there. And this is just the way I came through to get into this part of the structure. I came through here. So I just like hopped down. Now I have to hop back in. So this was Clongill Castle. A very surprising stop off on my journey around Slain. I did not expect to see this along the way. This might be the most off-roading I’ve had to do so far to make it to a site. These mushrooms though.

Okay, final bit of getting through these bushes to locate the site. I think it’s a lovely little walk though. Really nice weather today. Pretty sunny. I think we’ve made it though. Field over there. This is a really lovely setting. But guys, here we have it. First view on the site. Oh, wow. Look how beautiful this is. Just hidden in the woods down this little steep slope. But I have reached St. Irk’s Hermitage.

Guys, it is absolutely beautiful here. Just the setting amongst the trees, it feels so isolated. The building you are seeing here dates to the 14th century. However, it is associated with the 6th century Irish saint known as St. Irk. So, St. Irk built the monastic establishment on top of the Hill of Slain, which we’ll visit later on in the video. However, it is said that Irk lived out the rest of his life in prayer and solitude at a quiet hermitage beside the Boyne, which is where we are now. St. Irk’s full name is Irk Mockdega. So, that’s Irk, son of Dega. He is probably the most important monastic figure associated with Slain because his foundation stayed active for at least 600 years. So we’re going to talk a little bit more about his story when we visit the Hill of Slain, which was his biggest establishment.

St. Irk belonged to the first generation of the native Irish church, meaning that he was a contemporary of St. Patrick in the 6th century and the late 5th century. Before Patrick arrived, Irk was believed to have been a druid in King Lir’s retinue. King Lir was high king of Ireland in the very early fifth century and then once Patrick arrived, Irk was converted by him. I found these two nice depictions of St. Irk.

However, I always find these drawings very funny because they always make the person look super pious and very gracious when really it was just a regular man living in the sixth century. I actually looked up recently what did Jesus really look like. If you guys look that up, the answers are pretty shocking. So, I think it’s just funny because there’s no way these people actually looked like that. I think like for example, here’s a photo of the priest and Father Ted. Now, if we’re to consider that all these Irish saints were just men living in rural Ireland, I think this is probably a bit more realistic.

However, we can imagine that early medieval monks most likely rocked a hairstyle similar to this. This is the Celtic tauncher. It differs from the Roman toner. And actually, really interestingly, in the 664 Senate of Whitby, in which representatives of the Roman and Celtic churches gathered to settle two major disputes. So they settled the dispute of when to celebrate Easter and also how should monks cut their hair. Now I’m not sure in particular which hairstyle monks would have had in the sixth century because that would be an ecumenical matter.

Like many of our other sites, there has been a conservation effort on St. Irk’s Hermitage. Um, I believe in 2022 a team of archaeologists and also architects I believe were working on the site. I’m not sure is that still ongoing, but when I sort of walked in here, it seemed like it hadn’t been this grass hadn’t been walked on in a while, which would make it look like no one has really visited in a while. But how lovely is this ornamental carving above the doorway? I believe this is in the Romanesque style with all these intricate carvings and the conservation team have done such an excellent job.

I found this sketch from 1834 drawn by a man called Andrew Nickel for the Dublin Penny Journal and I thought this was an interesting side-by-side comparison of the structure in 1834 compared with now. This drawing comes from the Irish antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westerrop in the year 1901. So he dates the structure to late medieval, specifically the 15th century, and he recalls that in 1901 all except the tower are greatly decayed by the damp ivy and unkempt conditions, saying that this place has been in ruins since the well probably even before the early 20th century.

I’ve just previously ensured that the stairs are safe to walk on. Um, I’ve visited many sites like this and the stairs can be really chipped away, which is really beautiful because it actually shows how many years the monks spent, you know, walking upstairs. You’ll have like these little indentations showing, you know, the footprints of the monks’ steps. So, just come up these stairs. And they actually do just end here. I wonder why that is. But I can look down and I can look up here as well. And there’s more steps over there. I wonder where do they go? So, obviously there would have been a roof right here ‘cause there’s the second stairs. Back down we go.

When I was going up those stairs, the scariest part was I’m scared of butterflies. And there’s so many butterflies everywhere, which is such a good sign, but I’m just really scared of them for some reason. I don’t like how their wings are so big. They really freak me out. Like I’m not scared of spiders or anything like that. I’m so afraid of butterflies though.

This here. Let’s see what this is. Can I step through here? Ooh, more stairs. Let’s see where these go to. I think these just lead to nowhere. Yeah. Okay. They lead to the second room. Was there more steps over there? Possibly.

Something really cool that isn’t actually at the site anymore was this life-size effigy of a bishop, complete with his meter and robes. The figure is wearing a large episcopal ring and his hand is raised in blessing, and it has been dated to the late 14th or early 15th century. I just think it’s so cool. Like a life-size effigy of a bishop would be pretty awesome to see. Interestingly as well, the relics of St. Earth were brought on circuit around East M in 776, so the late 8th century at a time of disease and famine.

Now, I’m not sure entirely what these relics were. A relic circuit could be used to kind of seek divine help, provoking the saint’s spiritual power to help with the disease or famine and to protect the community. So a relic circuit functioned as both a religious ritual of intercession and a communal response to crisis, emphasizing the role of the church in early medieval Ireland among secular society. I’m honestly in complete awe of St. Irk’s Hermitage. It is just so beautiful. I’m not sure what it is about this site, but the architecture of it is just stunning and the setting of it is just completely in the middle of the sort of forested areas of the Boone River. So, it’s just so secluded.

So, that was St. Urk’s Hermitage. And now on to our next site. It unfortunately was too windy to record much of me speaking at the Hill of Slain. So, I’m just going to give you guys some voiceovers. So, what we’re seeing now is the 16th-century St. Patrick’s Parish Church. And next to it is the Ecclesiastical College, also constructed around the 16th century. Although the buildings you are seeing here date to the late medieval period, this site is most known for things that happened in the early medieval period.

So, the most important thing about Slay Abby is its association with St. Patrick. Because it is said that St. Patrick lit a fire here in the fifth century, which angered the then high king, Liry. This story comes to us from the 7th-century hagiography of Patrick called the Vita Sancta Patrrici, written by Merku Maku Mckeni. So this story is well, this hagiography is highly mysticized, so we can take it all with a pinch of salt. But according to the story, Patrick lit the first Pascal fire on the Hill of Slain in defiance of the pagan high king Liry. So the king who lived at Tara forbade any other fires being lit within view of Tara during the Beltina festival, which is the spring equinox, that is one of our ancient pre-Christian Irish festivals.

In the hagiography, Liri is described as a great king, fierce and pagan, emperor of the barbarians. After a number of attempts by Liry and others to kill Patrick, Liry is warned by the saint that he must accept the faith or die. Having taken the counsel of his people, he submits and is baptized. And this is how we were saying earlier that St. Irk was believed to have been a pagan druid converted by Patrick and appointed the first bishop of Slain. Here is a mosaic of St. Patrick in the Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar, showing Patrick lighting the Easter fire at Slain and destroying pagan idols.

As for the pre-Christian context of the Hill of Slain, I think you guys know me well enough by now to know that we’re going to consult the dentenicus. So again, I’m using Edward Gwyn’s translation of the metrical dentenicus. If you don’t know, the dentenicus is essentially a medieval Irish topography. It’s a class of anamastic texts in early Irish literature mainly found in the Book of Lister and maybe the Yellow Book of Leen, and Dennica stories are also incorporated into different saga texts such as the Tonbo Kulnia or the Akal of Nennerok. Here we have the entry for Slain in the metrical dentanicus.

As you can see, it is right above DVA, which we discussed in the last video. So you can check out the dentanicus of Dova in my last video. [snorts] So the dentanicus tells us that the Hill of Slain is named after the king of the fir known as Slana. So when we pronounce slain in English, it’s kind of a complete bastardization of the actual pronunciation because it should be Slana, I guess, meaning wellness or health. So, we’re told that Slana, king of the fear bullig, died at Drimfur, which is called Dova Slana, and was buried there. So essentially, the Hill of Slain is just named after a king of the fear bullig called Sana.

This headstone is super cool. It has a cross. Well, what’s that thing called? Crossbend. But then it also has a really cool depiction of the crucifixion right there. It comes across a lot better on camera. Some cherubs as well. It’s absolutely beautiful. Also, some cute little headstone figures. These two little cherubs. This guy has the same name. Well, his family has the same name as Father Ted Currilly. Father Ted Currilly.

So again, guys, I really wish I could talk to you while in here, but there’s quite a few people walking around. I wish I had the site to myself today, but some days it’s not like that. But this is really well preserved. I was just walking around inside and you can walk up the many staircases and kind of go to the different layers of the settlement. So let’s take a look inside. So starting off immediately by the door, you have this staircase which you can so easily just come into. So I’m going to hop up in here.

So, I’m really interested about where this staircase was located. Like, it obviously wasn’t just exposed like this by the door. Pretty curious to know that. So, come up these very, very thin steps. I love to just imagine myself as a medieval clergyman, a medieval monk just walking on these tiny steps and pretending I live here. But here we are on the first floor. I believe you have some nice cows. Mall. So cute. You can see the other levels because of the, say, like the fireplace over there and the doorways. The cows are pretty cool though.

The ruins of the Franciscan College date to the 16th century. And this quadrangle-styled establishment was designed to house just four priests, four laborers, and four caristers. So 4 * 3 is what? 12. So I think this is a pretty nice establishment for 12 people to live in. 30 years after the monastery was established, it was dissolved by King Henry VIII. And then later it was restored and it became home to the Capuchin monks. But again, the Capuchin monks were driven out by 1651 by Oliver Cromwell. So we have double the English evil colonial man [laughter] shutting down our monasteries.

The cow was chewing a can of Bmers is the problem with litter. He wanted to swallow in everything. Silly little bow. So cute. Would you like some grass on bow? All the beautiful cow. You like some grass? Yummy. Yummy. Oh. Oops. Oh, very lovely little madra as well. Oh sh.

So there’s a sign here for no drones. I’m not entirely sure why they prohibit droning at certain heritage monuments. I don’t really get it because I know a lot of archaeologists use drones obviously to see formations in the land. The Hill of Sain is mentioned a number of times in the Irish annals as an important center of early Irish law and most notably for a series of Viking attacks on the site. The Annals of Ulster record in 948 AD that the abbot of Slain was taken prisoner and died in pagan hands. And then two years later, it’s recorded in the annals that the bell house of Slana was burned by the foreigners of Aya.

The founder’s episcopal staff and the best of all bells, the lector kaneker and a large number with him were all burned. So this just shows a complete plundering by the Vikings. But interestingly, it says the founder’s episcopal staff, which is likely a relic of Irk, as I mentioned earlier. Maybe this was one of the relics that was brought on circuit in me during that time of famine in the 8th century. A friend has come to join me and he’s gone again. I’m always meeting different animal familiars while I’m out in the boat.

Call on Madra. I can hear him. Hello, dear glitch. Aadra, there’s so many cool stairs around this site that you can go up. You know, sometimes they at sites like this, medieval monastic settlements, they have the stairs understandably cordoned off because the stonework can be a bit bogey. But this one, you can walk around a lot. We have more cool inscriptions on stones just here. This one is really awesome. I really like that. So, I’m just about to leave the site. It’s so, so cool.

I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to you guys one to one here today. But I think it’s worthwhile just explaining this in a context where I can go into the most detail possible. Super cool here though. There’s a lot more people than I expected, like families and stuff with kids, which is really cool to see. Altogether, I hope every heritage site in Ireland can be treated this way where people of all ages can come and hang out and see what it’s like. Now, onto our next site of the day.

This is Dunmo Castle. Um, it comes from Dune Bow. So the hill fort of the cattle suggests that this castle was built on the site of maybe a Gaelic earlier ring for settlement, and also we have St. Catherine’s medieval church Dunmo with some lovely steps over the wall, my favorite thing. So here is the medieval church, and then here’s the remains of the castle. So there’s just some rocks here. I’m assuming it’s the ruin or the rubble of maybe the roof. But you can see the shape of the church pretty clearly. There’s a nice cross on top. I wonder when was that put there.

You can tell from ecclesiastical records that the church is earlier than the 13th century, but it was in ruin by 1641. Headstones visible today date from around 1722 to 1920. So it suggests that the site continued to serve as a burial ground long after the building was abandoned. This blocked passage in the floor leads to a burial fault. I’m going to put on my flash for this so you guys get a good view. There’s a lot of just litter here. Oh, wow. What is that? Are they headstones? I think another awesome crossbones.

This is the view when you come out the door of the church to the castle. Imagine how grand it would have been when it was completely put together and not in ruins. You can imagine a wall there as well. It just being a complete structure and not a ruin like this. Mo Castle was built for the Darcy family in the mid-15th century, and it marked the western edge of the pale. The pale was a part of Ireland that was directly controlled by the English crown in the late Middle Ages. So direct English rule was restricted to four obedient shires comprising mostly of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Laois.

So Dunmo Castle is built on the western edge of the pale. You can guess from the name the Darcy family were, of course, a member of the English ascendancy. So according to legend, the occupant of the castle, George Darcy, entertained King James on the night before the battle of the Boyne in 1690 and King William the day after, which inspired the couplet: “Who will be king? I do not know, but I’ll be Darcy of Dunmo.” I’m wondering where they’re going to lead me to.

It’s a little steep these ones. Um, they just bring you around the back of the castle. Oh, wow. A beautiful view of the River Boyne. Wow. This is absolutely massive. Like I’m standing on a hill and I’m looking up the whole way right now trying to see it. So, let’s take a little walk around the perimeter and see what we can find. Wow. And look, there’s more steps here. More for us to access. Do you guys see there? There’s a white cow. In Irish folklore, the white cows are considered fairy cows. They’re considered to be magical. It just keeps getting better. It’s so easy to walk around here. It’s like there’s loads of trails to take you around the castle ruin.

Oh, look at that locked door over there. It must have been easily accessible in the past. That’s why they had to close it off. Completely overgrown here, though. So, this is the remains of the castle. So, through my expertise climbing skills, I got up here. We have this lovely view over the fields and a nice view of the parish church as well. Yes, it was pretty easy to climb up here. Although I wouldn’t advise it. I can’t condone that kind of behavior. Um, it’s not actually that high up, so it’s just a bit steep. I just climbed up there, and I’m suspecting other people climbed across there. That’s why that door is locked. So that was Dunmo Castle and St. Catherine’s Medieval Church. And now on to our next site.

So, there’s this sign here on the side of the road of Shirro Ohooi, the Northwest Passage Tourist Route. I think that sounds pretty good. So, this is the road leading up. It’s just a little hill, and then you have this nice wall, and then there’s a stile over the wall, which is my favorite thing because it makes it so easy to get into sights.

And then we’re just going to be walking over there. Seems that Fenor Castle is the combination of a medieval tower house and a 17th-century strong house. There’s very little history written about it, so I’m really unsure of the origins of this place. I read one account that said in the Tonbo Cula that Queen may have told a few of her men that they could marry her daughter Fenor, and at that moment Fenor fell dead, and afterwards the townland was called Fenor. Although I have not read the tale in its entirety, so please let me know if anybody remembers this incident.

There is cow poop like everywhere. Um, because obviously this is just someone’s land. And then there’s a fence around the castle, obviously to stop the cows getting in. Um, because cattle can destroy a lot of monuments by rubbing themselves on them. Um, but as you can see, there’s cow pat everywhere.

So, opinion is largely divided on the dating of Fenor Castle. Some believe it is late 16th century, others believe it is early 17th, which isn’t too big of a difference, but it’s surprising that we don’t really know. Um, I believe here, although everything is completely destroyed, I can see some features that I can recognize. So, for example, just there we can of course see three fireplaces suggesting that there were three floors. And then just here, I believe we have two, I suppose, arrow slits or very skinny windows. I will correct it if that’s not true. Um, but everything is in such disrepair that it’s kind of difficult to tell what everything was.

I just climbed over this fence here, but there’s so much vegetation that, you know, I can barely walk around in the site. But it’s a very cool ruin left over. It’s a very small castle actually. Um, I’ve seen such bigger castles than this. It’s very compact. There’s some great views out this window here of this valley. I suppose it’s really cool in here, but it’s completely overgrown. Um, so definitely a site with, you know, what you see is kind of what you get. You come in and there’s vegetation everywhere, and that’s about as much as you can explore.

This drawing dates to the late 19th century, and as you can see, the site is already in ruins. On the 1837 ordinance survey map, this site is listed as Fenor Castle and Church, but it’s only in the 1888 map that they are listed as being in ruins. In researching Fenor Castle, I found an excerpt from the National Folklore Schools collection by Ducas, which if anyone doesn’t know is essentially just a collection of folktales recorded by school children in the 1930s in Ireland. So, it’s a really great resource for if you want to look into a certain place. You can find out the folklore about it, and it’s fully accessible online.

So, this is what it has to say about Fenor: There is only one ruined castle in this district, and that is Fenor Castle. It is approximately 2,000 years old and about 300 years derelict. It is situated on the south bank of the Boyne in the townland of Fenor, the parish of Slane, the barony of Lower Duleek, and the county of Meath. It was burned by Fleming, who was a Norman lord in the year 1002 and was rebuilt by Lacy. It is said that the ghost of a former owner used to be seen riding on horseback around the ruined castle in the moonlight.

There is no trace of a dungeon or underground passages in or around the castle. This is it from the front. It’s really not that big. Of course, it’s bigger than it appears on camera. When they say the camera adds 10 lb, that usually isn’t the case when it comes to these buildings because they’re a lot bigger in person. But this isn’t really that big. It’s quite tall, though. I will say that. And I’m on a hill as well. So, there’s a really great vantage point over the valley from this castle, which I guess shows why it was such a strong defensive structure because you can see right out over the valley at any of your opponents who may come to get you.

The parish church of Fenor is right next to the castle, like the castle is right there. Um, the grass is freshly cut, so someone has been tending to it recently and actually as well here. But I assume that could just be grazing from whatever cattle are in this field. But, uh, the gate is open. It’s just a very heavy gate. Let me show you. Pretty cool noise, but a super heavy gate. And then you come in here. So, right here, I found this little stone structure sort of thing.

Um, it looks like that’s completely solid there, but it looks like the base of some sort of maybe a cross or a monument. I read something about there being a cross associated with this site. So, I’m going to double-check that and tell you guys so I don’t get any facts wrong, but I’m wondering could this have been a significant monument right here? Fragment of the high cross head was found buried in the churchyard, and it would have been similar in size to the cross at Duleek in Meath as well. The cross can now be found at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Slane. It’s in fairly bad condition, though, with only a tiny bit left of it.

So, there’s this headstone here, and it’s so damaged. I think the cap of it has fallen over. And look at the way it has completely moved from the base. How did someone do that? Like, this thing weighs so much. It’s really crazy. So, there’s this headstone right here. And what I like most about it is the way the letters are squeezed in. So, this stone and burial place belongs to William. And then down here we have his son. It’s like aged 18 years, but also it says like departed. Like the way everything is squeezed in is pretty funny.

So, I just sort of traipsed through all these bushes so I can see a little bit inside the church. It’s definitely completely overgrown though, much like everything on this channel. There’s record of the existence of a church in Fenor as early as the 9th century, although I would say it probably goes back to maybe the 6th century with an earlier monastic foundation. But in the Annals of Ulster in the year 809, we have the record of a place called Find, in which it says Male Ferta August Kila Obit. So that says that Male Ferta, the abbot of Fenor, died in the year 809. That’s all I have from this site.

So that was Fenor Castle and Parish Church in Slain County, Me. So that is all I have for you guys today. As you all can hear from my voice, I’ve had a very rough week. I’ve just gone back from Electric Picnic where I was working for the past four days. I spent a good four days yelling at customers. Um, but I did get to see some really good Irish bands while I was there. I got to see the Ran. I got to see The Scratch and I also got to meet some people from the Merry Wallers, which was pretty cool. I tried to get in to go see Blind Boy, but he was at full capacity, which is no surprise because he is great.

That’s the entire video I have. I’m just recording my outro here from my back garden. And I hope you all love my little Irish plaque. Always. Please leave any comments, any feedback, suggestions. I love hearing from you guys. And I really hope you all enjoyed watching because I had a great time exploring Slain. I hope you all have a lovely day.

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