architecture – Bogwarrior.com

Balla’s Rogue Round Tower

The Mayo round towers have been remarkably easy to find so far. More importantly, they haven’t involved too much driving on narrow country roads. Even as a seasoned driver who’s used to those roads, there are times when I question my decisions and pray that there’s nobody coming in the opposite direction.

The village was on my route home, and for a change I didn’t need help from certain navigation apps from evil tech giants. Despite the tower being only about 10m tall nowadays, I spotted it from a distance and pulled the car up in the square beside it. The monastery at Balla was founded by St Mochua, who died in 637. The church was burnt in 780 and again in 1179. The round tower is all that survives from the monastery.

Balla round tower — Approaching from the square

The tower stands in a beautifully maintained old graveyard in the centre of the village. It is believed to have been about 15m tall as recently as the 19th century, and we know that a bell was installed here during the 1830s. It must have been considerably taller originally, but exactly how tall it was is another question. With the passage of time, who knows? Like the tower at Aughagower, just 30 km away, this one has two doorways.

Brian Lalor’s excellent book on Ireland’s round towers has been an invaluable companion on these trips and on this blog. He rather tantalisingly describes Balla as a “rogue tower”, which immediately made my ears prick up. Well, as much as a human’s ears can without looking ridiculous.

Part of the answer seems to lie with the original upper doorway. Lalor points out that it is lintelled, something more commonly found in some of the earlier round towers. But in Balla’s case, the doorway appears to have been altered while the tower was being built, rather than being part of the original design.

The masonry also suggests that the tower was built in several phases. So even before it was finished, it seems to have been going off-script.

The second doorway is unusual too. In most round towers, the later ground-level doorway tends to be the crude one, while the original elevated entrance is the more carefully finished of the two. At Balla, it’s the other way around. The ground-level doorway is thought to date from the 16th century, and it’s a very nice piece of work. Part of it also appears to incorporate a piece of an early mediaeval cross slab that has been reused in the construction. Carrying on with the recycling theme, there are a couple of stones in the walls that look very much like bullauns. The tower also has what appears to be a very small window, or a gun loop, in the south-facing wall. Hmm.

For a truncated tower with no crumbly old companions left in the vicinity, it has a lot going on. Even if you’re not a round-tower fanatic – like most regular people 😁 – it’s worth a quick detour if you’re on the road.

Getting There

The village of Balla is on the N60, roughly half way between Castlebar and Claremorris. It’s just off the village square, so it’s a piece of cake to get to.

Gallery

Meelick: A race against the dying light

If you read my post about my visit to Turlough round tower, you might remember me banging on about arriving so late in the evening that everything else had already closed. As a reminder of just how insanely long summer evenings are in Ireland, I managed to find time to visit the round tower at Meelick on that very same evening.

Meelick’s tower stands in a lovely, peaceful old graveyard on a hill out in the countryside. The modern cemetery is across the road, both sitting quietly alongside a country road with little to disturb the peace.

A word of praise is also due to whoever looks after the graveyard. The ground around the tower is far from even, but the grass has been cut beautifully. Whoever is responsible for keeping this place mown is a lawn-mowing hero!

As with Turlough, very little is known about the monastery that once stood here. We don’t know who founded it or when exactly it was established. In fact, the round tower is now all that remains of the monastic site.

And it is an impressive survivor. Although Meelick’s tower has lost its cap, it still cuts a fine dash, rising about 21 metres above the surrounding countryside. From its position on the hill, it has a commanding view over the fields and landscape around it.

There is an interesting little detail on the eastern side of the tower. Attached to the wall is an old cross slab, thought to bear the inscription “Or do Gricour”, interpreted as meaning “A prayer for Gricour”. It is a small surviving fragment of the community that once existed here, and perhaps the closest thing we have to a name from Meelick’s early history.

There isn’t a huge amount left to see at Meelick, but that is part of what makes the place appealing. There is no ruined church crowding the round tower, like in Turlough, or anything else other than graves and the lovely countryside.

By the time I was taking my photographs, the light was finally beginning to fade. This caused my phone to overcook the photos and made them look like those HDR pics which were all the rage years ago. You know the ones. I’ve tried to calm the photos down afterwards, but there’s only so much you can do. Perhaps it’s an excuse to call back next time I’m in Mayo.

Getting There

The round tower is on a quiet country road and is easy to find. There’s plenty of parking, helped by the presence of the modern-day cemetery across the road.

Turlough Round Tower: Open All Hours

One of the nice things about going round tower hunting on a long summer’s evening is that there is time to pack lots of sightseeing in. The downside, of course, is that there is also plenty of time to spot places that look interesting but have been closed for hours.

Turlough cemetery — The tower, as seen from the entrance gate

The round tower I was in search of was the one on a hill overlooking the village of Turlough, Co. Mayo. To get there, I had to drive past the gates of The Museum of Country Life. It looked like a place worth visiting, but it had sensibly been closed for hours by then.

Happily, the graveyard where Turlough’s round tower stands is open at all hours. There are no neighbours to annoy, either inside or outside the cemetery walls, which is always a good thing. Allegedly.

The tower stands on top of a hill beside the remains of a ruined church. The church dates from the eighteenth century, although parts of an earlier church are incorporated into it. One of its walls has a particularly striking plaque depicting the Crucifixion, dating from 1625. “Lovely” probably isn’t the appropriate word for a scene involving crucifixion, but it is certainly an interesting piece of decoration.

Little is known about the monastery that once stood here. We don’t know who founded it or exactly when the round tower was built. Tradition has it that St. Patrick founded the original church which stood here, and that’s as good as it gets, really. What is immediately noticeable about the tower is its proportions. Unlike some of Ireland’s taller and more elegant round towers, Turlough’s is comparatively short and looks distinctly squat. It’s likely the tower’s lack of height was down to economics. Commerce was a thing even in olden times.

Unhappily the later church has been built right up against the tower. It actually gets in the way, literally and visually, and blocks a part of the tower. It’s one of those cases where you wish that the builder of the later church had picked a slightly different spot. Which is especially frustrating because the church is right up to the doorway of the tower, ruining what is (to me) a highlight of round towers.

The original doorway of the tower has been blocked up, while a second doorway was added at a later date and has also been blocked. A grave now sits immediately in front of it,

The ruined church itself is locked, so there is no opportunity to poke around inside. There is still plenty to see outside, however, and the position on the hill makes the visit worthwhile even beyond the tower itself. The surrounding views are pleasant, and on a long summer evening there is little reason to hurry away.

And if you happen to arrive after the Museum of Country Life has closed, at least the round tower isn’t keeping office hours.

Getting there

This one is nice and easy to find and access. There’s plenty of room to park on the road outside.

Base of Turlough Round Tower — Base of the tower

Aughagower: Two Doors, One Tower and a Famous Visitor

On a trip to Mayo, I decided to add a few more round towers to my stagnant checklist. First up was the tower at Aughagower, which is an easy one to find, standing as it does in the middle of a graveyard in a small village. As it happened, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had visited Aughagower just three weeks before yours truly. There were still a few Canadian flags fluttering about, adding a bit of colour to the quiet little village.

Aughagower church, tower and Canadian flag

I was amused to discover that the headstones belonging to Carney’s ancestors were located in what turned out to be a remarkably convenient spot for a visiting dignitary. They had clearly received a bit of attention recently and were looking remarkably spruce — almost as if they were expecting company. A quick look at Google Street View’s 2019 imagery suggests that they hadn’t always looked quite so pristine.

This tower has been through the wars. A large breach on the northern side was repaired in the 1960s. Before the repairs were carried out, parts of the tower’s interior had been visible from the graveyard outside.

The tower’s original doorway also shows signs of fire damage. It’s a reminder of just how vulnerable these towers could be if someone was determined to set one alight. Shove some flammable material through the doorway, set fire to it, and — whoosh!

There is also a second doorway at ground level, added at a later date. This gives visitors the rather rare opportunity to walk straight into a surviving round tower, which isn’t something you get to do every day.

The original monastery is said to have been founded by St Senach in the 7th century. The tower now stands beside the ruins of a church dating from the 12th to 15th centuries.

There are also two dried-up holy wells across the road from the graveyard. Works on drainage and water supply in the locality dried them up, but they’re still easy to find. The graveyard itself is quite uneven, so watch your step.

Getting There

Aughagower is 8km from Westport, and the drive takes about 10 minutes. The tower is in an old graveyard, right beside the village church. If you can’t find this one, I don’t know what I can say to you.

Gallery

A view of the tower from the north-west — A view of the 2nd doorway

Build it and they will come…or not

Yet again, my talent for visiting heritage sites under scaffolding does not disappoint

Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir is a little bit different to your usual castle visit. For starters, the site isn’t obviously a castle. What catches the eye aren’t the ruins of the castle which are there, but the Elizabethan Tudor manor house built onto it. As we know, Tudor manor houses aren’t all that common in Ireland. This one could’ve been soo much more Elizabethan if only Queen Elizabeth I (i.e. Ms Elizabethan herself) had bothered to come and visit.

Anyway, let’s go back a bit in time. A castle was first built on the site in the fourteenth century. At the time it was very close to the River Suir (as depicted in a rather nice model that’s on display in the visitor centre) and was strategically important. It was originally owned by the Wall family but was given to the powerful Butler Family. James Butler would later become the first Earl of Ormond. The Butler family, incidentally, also owned Kilkenny Castle for many centuries.

Model depicting the castle and the river

Over 200 years later, Thomas Butler, the Tenth Earl of Ormond built the Tudor manor house onto the castle. Black Tom, as he was also known, was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I through her mother Anne Boleyn. He became close friends with Elizabeth. So close, in fact, that there were rumours they were more than good friends. Elizabeth was known to refer to him as her “Black husband”.

Photo from Heritage Ireland website — The Long Gallery (photo not mine)

Thomas invited Elizabeth to come visit him in Ireland and she accepted the invitation. In 1565 he built the manor house here, in preparation for her visit. As an Elizabethan-style house, it had larger windows, brick chimneys and a layout different to traditional Irish buildings. It has a beautiful long hall that has some pretty amazing stucco plasterwork on the walls and ceiling.

Sideways view of the model, showing how the manor house was built onto the castle

Disappointingly for Tom, Elizabeth was long on promises but short on action. She never did get around to visiting the manor house he had built for her.

“She had promised to visit when her Irish wars were won”

In 1588 Thomas became a Knight of the Garter and in 1597 he became Lieutenant General of Ireland in 1597. He also found the time to get married 3 times and fathered at least 16 children (4 inside the marriages, 12 elsewhere). When he died in 1614, his illegitimate son Piers FitzThomas Butler of Duiske benefited most from his will. This led to rumours that Piers might’ve been a child he’d had with Elizabeth.

Over time the financial clout and power of the Butler family diminished. The house was abandoned in the late 17th century and fell into ruin. The Butlers handed the site over to the Irish state in 1947

The castle and manor house have undergone significant restoration since then. In recent years the manor house was plastered over again. If you do a google image search, you can see plenty of photos of the manor house with its stonework exposed.

Even if Elizabeth couldn’t be bothered coming to visit, it is worth a trip if you fancy looking at something that isn’t yet another castle. There are some remnants of the castle on the site, including the tower house. The guided tour didn’t bring us in there but perhaps that may change in the future. There’s also a short film on the history of the castle and a museum with some interesting bits and bobs

Getting There

The castle closes over the winter time, so check Heritage Ireland’s website before planning your visit. As of 2024 its season is running from March-November. More details here

The castle is accessed through the park you can see on Google Streetview. Carrick on Suir is a busy town so you may not find parking right beside the castle. Astonishingly, the payment machine in the nearby council-run New Street Car Park didn’t offer a contactless card payment option. If you don’t have enough coins to hand (luckily we did) then you’re required to download an app and pre-load it with credit. That’s fine if you park in Co. Tipperary on a regular basis. If you’re on a one-time visitor then it’s daylight robbery.

Temple Church

I haven’t posted here for a while so I have some catching up to do. The first new/old post I’ll do is about the Temple Church in London. When staying in the city last year, I had the good fortune to stay in a (then) very reasonably priced hotel that was right next door.

I knew very little about the church other than that it popped up in The Da Vinci Code which I read about 20 years ago, and that it had something to do with the Knights Templar. It turns out to be far more interesting than that and has connections to one of my favourite places in Ireland.

The church is at the end of a laneway, a short walk from Fleet Street. It’s nestled in the middle of London’s legal district and is surrounded by impressive looking office buildings and gardens. It’s also nice and peaceful which is always welcome in this part of the world.

The first thing of note when you reach the church is its impressive looking West Doorway. It’s the entrance into the round part of this unusual church – more of that in a moment. Part of the decorations on the doorway include heads wearing turbans, caps and buttons. Some of these point to the interesting history of the people who built it.

The organisation which became known as the Knights Templar was founded in 1118. One of its aims was to protect pilgrims travelling to and from Jerusalem. Although they were based in Jerusalem, in time they built a base in London. In 1162 a round church was built here, inspired by the (also round) Church of the Holy Sepulchre back in Jerusalem. A chancel was later added. The area surrounding the church became known as Temple and it became the centre of religious, political and political life in London.

The entrance into the church is just around the corner and once inside, you’re free to roam and get a good look at the place. One of the first things to be seen in the church are 9 male effigies on the floor. The most remarkable of them all is probably that of William Marshal, the first Earl of Pembroke. He has been described as “The Best Knight that Ever Lived”. He certainly lived an eventful life and his influence extended across into Ireland. Amongst other things, he was responsible for the building of Hook Lighthouse in County Wexford 😎 William served four Kings of England and was one of the main negotiators involved in the drawing up of the Magna Carta. Indeed he was one of the signatories of it. When excavations were carried out in the church in 1842, medieval coffins were found under the floor. These are thought to have included William.

Being a tower freak, it wasn’t long before I was heading up the stairs and into the gallery. Perhaps it’s for the best that I didn’t spot any signs of the creepy tiny penitential cell that’s just off the stairs. It’s little more than the size of a broom cupboard. The story goes that an unfortunate man called Walter Bachelor was locked into the cell and left to starve to death in 1301. Is the story true? It isn’t clear but it was just one of the nefarious rumours about the Templars which were floating around at the time. On Friday 13th October 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V moved to end the Knights Templar. King Edward II handed the church over to the order of St. John.

Like just about every other old building, the church was tweaked over the years. Sir Christopher Wren made some changes to it, but nothing like what the Victorians did. Their alterations weren’t universally popular. However, most of that was lost on the night of 10th May 1941 when German bombers dropped over 700 tons of explosives over London. Along with the huge cost to human life (an estimated 1,400 deaths and 2,000 injuries), huge swathes of the city were destroyed. The Temple Church, which had survived the Great Fire of London, was one of the casualties. It was badly damaged during the fire and it took 14 years for the church to be fully repaired.

Amusingly, some of the mediaeval-inspired encaustic floor tiles which the Victorians had laid survived. These can be seen up in the gallery and they’re very striking. I also learned a new word – encaustic, encaustic…

The fire had shattered the original columns in the church, so new ones were quarried for it. The originals had been noted for their crookedness, so when they were rebuilding, they continued the tradition. It goes without saying that the fire also destroyed the original church organ. Its replacement came from an unlikely source – Glen Tanar castle in Scotland. The organ had originally been built for the castle ballroom but the acoustics in the room didn’t suit it. (As an aside, I’ve never seen so many deer antlers in the one place…). And so, the organ was gifted to the church by Lord Glentanar and it was shipped down to London. Not only did it sound much much better in its new home, it gained a reputation for being a really great organ. Much of the soundtrack to Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar was recorded on this organ, with resident organist Roger Sayer collaborating with composer Hans Zimmer. Unfortunately, I visited on a Monday so I didn’t get to hear one of the church’s Wednesday lunchtime recitals.

Churches to visit are ten-a-penny in London but this one comes highly recommended. Even though it was badly damaged during the war, the painstaking restoration of it is superb. It’s an unusual church with an interesting, sometimes dark history. And by London admission price standards, the entrance fee is pretty reasonable (£5 at the time of writing)

Gallery – click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

Roscam – Never finished?

A recent trip to Galway afforded me the opportunity to “bag” another round tower. And so, I went in search of the tower at Roscam, which is on the outskirts of the city, overlooking Oranmore Bay. It’s a beautiful location, though the view is hampered somewhat by the inevitable development on the other side of the bay.

Very little is known about the monastery which once stood here. It is thought it may have been established here in the 5th century, which would make it one of the oldest monastic settlements in Ireland. It has been associated with St. Patrick (yep, that one) and with Odran, brother to St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise. In 807, the site was attacked by those serial monastery pillagers, the Vikings. The monastery might also be where the bones of King Brión mac Echach Muigmedóin were brought to by Saint Aedus. There are question marks as to whether King Brión ever actually existed so you can make up your own mind.

The putlock holes are still visible on the tower

The tower stands 10.98m tall and is unusual for two reasons. One is that the lintelled doorway is quite low to the ground. The other is that the tower still has numerous putlock (or putlog) holes on its external walls. These were used to support scaffolding while the towers were being built, but were covered up afterwards. The presence of these holes in the tower raises doubts as to whether this particular one was ever finished. There is just one window in the tower, directly over the door. At some point afterwards, somebody attempted to add some height to the tower but the new stonework is not of the quality of what went before.

Close to the tower are the ruins of a medieval church. I wasn’t able to get near them because of the extensive stone walls and unclimbable gates in the area. Some of these are the remnants of ancient fortifications and they’re still doing their work effectively in 2021!

Far more interesting is the ancient graveyard which overlooks the bay. It doesn’t appear to be still in use but it looks like it was used extensively over the centuries. It’s populated with lots of broken, illegible headstones and rocks and it’s wonderful. There are two large bullaun stones in there as well, one of which is associated with St. Patrick. It seems the great snake banisher was also a dab hand at making round dents in big rocks.

One of the bullaun stones in the grave yard

By a long shot, this was the trickiest round tower to get to. For better or worse, I accessed it by driving along the Rosshill Road, then walked (carefully!) along the rocky beach that runs south of the site. Then some clambering over stone walls and navigating electric fences came into the equation. The tower is in the middle of a working farm, so naturally the animals come first.

Liathmore – New(ish) to the party

Every now and then, a new round tower gets added to the list of known towers. In 2018, some mortar from a ruined tower in the grounds of a grammar school in Derry were radiocarbon dated. It had been thought that the tower was a ruined windmill but the analysis of the mortar revealed it to be an older building. Evidence suggests it could quite likely be a round tower that had been known to have stood in the area.

The rediscovery of the tower at Liathmore, Co. Tipperary took place nearly 50 years before this. In 1969-70 Dr. Robin E. Glasscock from Queens University, Belfast led excavations at this site. The foundations of the tower were found, along with some worked ashlars which were later used to reconstruct the base. The foundations went to a depth of 2.6 metres which is unusually deep for a round tower. As to why the tower vanished and was forgotten about, that’s anybody’s guess. Subsequent to the excavations, the Office of Public Works (OPW) reconstructed the base of the tower using the material found during the dig. The base is surrounded by a larger circular stone wall, constructed by the OPW to protect it from cattle.

The reconstructed base of Liathmore Round Tower. To its north is the smaller and older of the two churches here.

The monastery here was founded by St. Mochoemóg in the early 7th century. Tradition has it that he is buried in the larger church. And in a blurring of fact and fiction, he features in some versions of the Children of Lir story as the monk who baptised the four swans and turned them back into humans. Local folklore has it that every four years, four swans return to the area and spend a week here.

The tower base is situated almost half way between two ruined churches. Apart from these, there is evidence of a settlement which once existed here, perhaps until the 16th or 17th century. These lumps and bumps in the ground are easily visible in the area around the larger church

Aerial photo of the tower base and the two churches.

The smaller of the two is an 11th-century oratory. The larger church dates from the 12th century, though it was modified after that. Alterations made in the 15th century are quite noticeable here. There is a loft and steps that access the roof. This church has some interesting features, including some carved heads over the doorway and a Sheela-na-Gig that’s a little hard to find unless you know where to look (fnar). I visited this site on a sunny summer’s evening and wasn’t able to get a decent picture of said exhibitionist. So if you’re curious, there are pics on the “Ireland’s Síle na Gigs” website.

This site wouldn’t make it onto my “must see” list but it was a pleasant way to spend a sunny summer’s evening. The larger church in particular is interesting to look at. Because it’s a much altered building, there are random carvings set into doorways and masonry to look at inside.

Heads!

Getting There

This site is trickier to find than most of the others because it is on private farmland and isn’t signposted from the main road. The entrance to the farm, and the farm track out to the site, look a bit different to the 2009 Google Streetview imagery. Other online accounts of visiting this site mention the mud and advise wearing wellies, so I left my visit to this one until we’d had a dry spell of weather.

Killeshin. No round tower but…but…that doorway!

Killeshin is a small village in County Laois, just a few kilometres from Carlow town. It is also the site of former monastery, founded by either St. Comgan or St. Diarmait in the 5th century. It seems to have been a monastic site of note in its early days and was mentioned in historical literature. Little remains of this monastery now – according to the information board on the site it was mostly destroyed in 1077 AD. The only historic artefacts which are to be found there now are now are the ruins of a later church, a pretty amazing Hiberno-Romanesque doorway, and a baptismal font. But first, can I lament the demolition of its round tower in 1703? Hell, it’s my blog so I can do what I want to 🙂

Extract from Ordnance Survey Ireland historical 25″ map

The graveyard in Killeshin isn’t that large these days but until 1703, there was a round tower in the south-western corner of the graveyard. It seems to have been in pretty poor condition by that time but the worst was yet to come. The tower is recorded as having been 105 feet high (32m) and lay to the north-west of the church. It was “this was taken down in 1703 because the owner feared that it might fall on his cattle!“ . So in short, let me smite Colonel Wolseley who decided to demolish the tower, and add my voice of support to the Protestant Bishop of Leighlin who was “very displeased with him.”.

The Hiberno-Romanesque doorway in the gable end of Killeshin church

Despite this, the cemetery in Killeshin is still worth a visit if Romanesque doorways are your thing. The church ruins here are mostly from the 12th century and comprise mainly of two gable ends and plenty of fresh air in between. One of the gable ends has a window that looks out into the nice Laois countryside but it’s for the doorway that these ruins are most notable.

Part of the inscription dedicated to Diarmit MacMurrough

The doorway is in the unique “Hiberno-Romanesque” style and is one of the best examples to be found on the island of Ireland. To add an element of intrigue, the doorway may have been commissioned by the notorious Diarmit MacMurrough, the Irish king whose actions led to the English first coming to Ireland. There is an inscription in the doorway which reads ‘Orait do Diarmait Ri Lagen‘ or ‘a prayer for Diarmait, King of Leinster’ if your Irish is a bit rusty.

Regardless of who commissioned the doorway, it’s wonderful. It’s covered with all sorts of carvings, from written text to animal heads to all sorts of decorations. I’d go as far as to say it’s mesmerising if you have any liking for crumbly old ruins at all.

Getting There

It is an easy site to find – it is signposted and is on the side of a country road. It is a 2 minute walk from the current Killeshin Catholic church. The church’s car park is the handiest place to leave your four-wheeled means of transport. The cemetery is beautifully maintained – indeed on the evening I called in there was somebody mowing the grass.

Oughterard – Pint Sized

The original monastery at Oughterard is said to have been founded by St. Briga (aka. St Brigid). Confusingly, this isn’t the same St. Brigid who is connected with the settlement in nearby Kildare or one of the many other Brigids out there. Honestly, your head would start to spin if you try to figure all of it out. Less confusingly (and more of that in a moment), it is also the final resting place of Arthur Guinness, who founded that brewery.

Little remains of the original monastery now, apart from the round tower. It stands at the back of a cemetery which is found at the top of a hill. Indeed, the Irish name for Oughterard is Uachtar Ard or high upper place. Like many other monasteries, it was raided by the Vikings. In the case of Oughterard, it was raided by the wonderfully named Sigtrygg Silkbeard who was a well-known Dublin-based Viking. At one point, the area was owned by Dermot MacMurrough, who’s possibly buried near another round tower…

Now partially ruined, the tower here is built from shale rubble. Its doorcase is round-headed and made from granite. There is a padlocked metal door now in the doorway, ensuring that nobody’s getting in.

Close to the tower is a ruined church which dates from the 14th century. Its most striking feature, apart from the window which faces the cemetery gate, is the stairs turret which looks like it’s ready to topple over Looking at other photos online, it is still possible to climb it but it wasn’t for me!

Inside the wall of the church is a plaque which begins “In the adjoining vault are deposited the mortal remains of Arthur Guinness…..” Guinness was born locally in either 1724 or 1725 – the date and place of his birth are disputed. Tradition has it that his grandfather and his father brewed ale, so it was inevitable that he’d end up continuing that line of business. After initially leasing a brewery in Leixlip, he signed a 9,000 year lease at a site in St. James’s Gate, Dublin. This is where the Guinness brewery and adjoining tourist trap continue to operate to this day.

Getting There

These days, the cemetery is marketed as part of “Arthur’s Way”, a Guinness related tourist trail run by Kildare County Council. The entrance is near a bend in a country road but there is room to park along there. It is a well-maintained site and even though there isn’t a lot here, it’s quite a pleasant place to spend a while. There are some nice views too.