A walk along the Abha Bhán River Walk in Ballyhahill

The stone bridge over the Owvaun River at Ballyhahill was built in 1781 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford, 2021)

After my recent visit to the Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill in west Limerick, I went for a walk along the Abha Bhán River Walk, a new walk along the Owvaun River. This riverside walk in Ballyhahill is only 0.7 km, but it provides amazing vistas.

The Owvaun River is one of the five major rivers in Co Limerick, excluding the Shannon; the other four are: the Maigue, the Deel, the Feale and the Mulkear or Mulcair. The name Owvaun (Irish: Abha Bhan) means ‘fair river’ or ‘beautiful river,’ although it is known too as the White River (An Abhainn Bhan).

The Owvaun has two main arteries or tributaries that meet just south of the bridge at Ballyhahill to form a single river that heads north towards the Shannon Estuary at Loughill.

The western tributary is known as An Abhainn Dorcha (the Dark River) and rises in Glenbaun at Carrigkerry.

The eastern tributary, the Owvaun,which is the main flow of the river, rises in Knockfinisk (Carrigkerry), Glensharrold (Carrigkerry) and Kerrikyle (Ardagh). However, Glensharrold is the main source of the river, with minor streams rising in Knockfinisk and Kerrikyle.

The Owvaun has two main arteries or tributaries that meet just south of the bridge at Ballyhahill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A new stone bridge was built over the Owvaun River at Ballyhahill in 1781. This was one of the first stone bridges in rural Co Limerick; until then, most bridges were wooden beam structures.

This triple-arch road bridge has rubble stone walls, cut limestone voussoirs, tall semi-circular arches, and roughly dressed limestone copings on the parapet walls. The symmetrical form of this road bridge is enhanced by the textural variation created by the rubble stone walls and cut voussoirs.

The river walk in Ballyhahill to Loughill has many cascades and pools (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The section of the river from Ballyhahill to Loughill is notably picturesque, with numerous cascades and pools in a setting of mature, deciduous woodland composed largely of native species.

The riverside trail of 0.7 km was laid out in recent years along the east bank of the river , heading north from below the bridge.

Along this walk, Glenadda is a long river pool, with a rocky bottom and deep waters. This is a favourite spot for local anglers. At Glenadda Falls, the rock is cut out by the river’s waterflow in a southeast-to-northwest direction. When the river is in flood, its brown waters pour down over its rockface, crashing up suds at the base, like stout being filled in a glass.

The Leaps is an imposing cascade. This waterfall was once a wall of rock from bank to bank, with the river flowing over its face. The Leaps was dynamited in the 1960s by the local fishing club to give fish easier access to the river to the south.

The Limekiln Waterfall is, in reality, a double waterfall, with the river falling six metres in height in a great mass of water. Near the bank, the flow is somewhat quieter, with the water pimpling over the rock, like silver coins on edge. The silver pool that forms just south of the Limekiln waterfall is known as poll a cro, the enclosed pool.

The Pots is so called because the water flow has worn out pot-like structures in the rock. This waterfall is spectacular when the river is in full flood, with ‘the pots’ filling with water and then the water being forced back out in a tornado of spray at an extraordinary pace.

The road from Ballyhahill to Loughill was laid down in the 1870s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

After returning along the 0.7 km trail, we walked back over the bridge and up the hill into Ballyhahill. The road from Ballyhahill to Loughill was laid down in the 1870s, and is known locally as the line.

Ballyhahill primary school was built in 1874. Ballyhahill Co-Operative creamery was registered on 16 October 1890. The Carnegie Public Library built in Ballyhahill in 1907 was one of 660 Carnegie Libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie and built in the Britain and Ireland in 1881-1971, and one of eight built by Rathkeale Rural District Council. The creamery was bought by Golden Vale Co-Op in Charleville in 1973.

Many of the shopfronts and houses in Ballyhahill retain architectural features and decorative stuccowork that are evidence of how this was once a prosperous town in west Limerick.

Many shopfronts and houses in Ballyhahill retain interesting architectural features and decorative stuccowork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The 200-year-old parish church in Ballyhahill and its bell tower

The Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill was built in 1829 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The villages of Loughill and Ballyhahill, near Foynes and Shanagolden in west Limerick, form one parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick.

I have already visited the Church of the Assumption in Loughill, but in mid-May I visited the Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill for the first time.

The area is associated with Saint Colmog, and Saint Colmag’s Well is about 100 metres from the fragmentary ruins of an old mediaeval church in Loughill.

At one time, Ballyhahill was part of the parish of Shanagolden and Kilmoylan. Before the Church of the Visitation was built in Ballyhahill, parishioners attended Mass in Kilmoylan church.

A mass house in Lisready is referred to in the Hearth money return of W Blood 1784, and it continued in use until 1814-1815. There was a church too in Kilteery, near the shoreline, where a chalice was found in the 1940s, and a large altar-shaped stone was found in 1993.

Inside the Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill was built in 1829 on a site given in 1827 by the local landlord Lord Monteagle of Mount Trenchard. At this time, Ballyhahill was part of the Shanagolden parish, and Dean Patrick McNamara was the Parish Priest of Shanagolden. The Feast of the Visitation, which was placed in the Calendar of the Western Church by Pope Urban VI in 1389, was celebrated on 2 July, but is now celebrated on 31 May (next Monday), between the Feasts of the Annunciation (25 March) and the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (24 June).

Following the death of the parish priest, Father Mortimer Collins, in 1857, Ballyhahill was joined with Loughill to form the present parish, with Father Daniel O’Kennedy as the parish priest of the new parish.

The church was renovated in 1969 and was reopened in 1971 by Bishop Murphy and Father Patrick O’Dea, Parish Priest. It was renovated again in 2010, when the sanctuary was reordered and new heating and lighting systems were installed.

The altar in the Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill … in memory of Father Walsh, Parish Priest of Longton, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The altar in the church is in memory of Father W Walsh, Parish Priest of Longton in Staffordshire.

A ‘Lourdes’ stained-glass window depicting the Virgin Mary and Saint Bernadette dates from 1927. It was first placed in the porch, but was moved to the sanctuary in 2006.

A separate window depicts the Sacred Heart.

The Stations of the Cross were designed by the Irish artist Cynthia Moran, and were executed by a foundry in Madrid.

The porch window in the Church of the Visitation in Ballyhahill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The church has a wood carving of the Last Supper, and the church also has a statue of Saint Joseph with the Christ Child, a painting of Christ and Pontius Pilate washing his hands, and a painting of Christ with the crown of thorns.

Three former parish priests are buried in the church: Father James Hogan (1863-1876), Father John Reeves (1876-1892) and Father Stephen Danaher (1892-1918). Three former parish priests are buried in the churchyard: Father Patrick J O’Regan (1973-1985), Father Thomas O’Sullivan (1948-1958) and Canon John Sheehy (died 2004).

The churchyard also has a free-standing campanile or belltower.

The free-standing belltower beside the parish church in Ballyhahill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Kilteery Pier failed as a Victorian enterprise but is a visitors’ delight

Blue skies and clear waters on the Shannon Estuary at Kilteery Pier, near Foynes, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Earlier this week, I visited Kilteery Pier, one of the many small, 19th century piers on the shores of the Shannon Estuary. This pier is between Foynes and Glin, a little outside the village of Loghill. Although it is only 20 km west of Askeaton, and I have seen the signposts for it on many occasions, my visit on Sunday afternoon was my first since I moved to Askeaton over four years ago.

The pier at Kilteery is an L-plan limestone pier, built in 1841-1842. It has coursed rusticated limestone battered walls, and a supporting ramp at the east side. The tarmacked roadway has cut limestone flagstones forming a footpath and fluted cast-iron bollards around the edge. There are tapered limestone capstans, and concrete steps down to the sea at the west of the pier, with cut limestone steps at the east side.

The Shannon Commissioners, who took office in 1839, built a number of piers on the Shannon Estuary in places where local landowners were willing to contribute about half of the total cost.

A local landlord, John FitzGibbon (1792-1851), 2nd Earl of Clare, a former Governor of Bombay and later Lord Lieutenant of Limerick, paid £918 2s 6d to build a pier at Kilteery, said to be ‘favourably situated’ for shipping out agricultural produce.

Lord Clare was the closest friend of Lord Byron while they were at school at Harrow, and Byron had claimed to love him ‘ad infinitum’ and said that he could never hear the word ‘Clare’ without ‘a murmur of the heart.’

Lord Clare had recently been compensated by the Shannon Commissioners to the sum of 5 shillings for the compulsory purchase of the land and beach at Kilteery for building a new pier. Some years earlier, Lord Clare had donated £50 towards the building costs of a new church in Kilcolman, and also leased land in the townland of Knockboheen for building a schoolhouse.

The Shannon Commissioners reported in 1842 that building work on the pier at Kilteery began in May 1841. The stone came Foynes Quarry, providing the foundations and walls of the north and south faces. However, it was difficult to find suitable foundations with the budget, and the mole was shorter than planned.

The project was hampered by severe weather, frequent gales, and an unprecedented rainy season, the work would by this time have been nearly completed. The works have been carried on with energy. The foundations of the remaining portion, which was exposed to the sea, could only be laid at low water in extraordinary spring tides.

The pier at Kilteery was partly financed by the Earl of Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

At times, over 60 people were employed in the building work each day. The Shannon Commissioners reported in 1842 that the costs were £1490 12s 1½d in 1841. The pier was completed in mid-July 1842 at a further cost of £317 17s 0½d.

When the new pier was completed, it was inspected by Lord Clare, James Harvey and Charles Bingham, commander of the Garryowen steamer. It was reported at the time would open trade for ‘a vast tract of country’, including Athea, Abbeyfeale and Newcastle. Lord Clare also contributed to opening a road in this area to Abbeyfeale.

By December 1842, a person was employed to take charge of the pier and to collect fees for boats using the wharf and the quay. The Shannon Commissioners also built a parapet wall to protect people working on the pier and to preserve the roadway against strong westerly gales.

A stone near the pier looks like a benchmark stone, but is engraved with a vertical arrow and the initials ‘SC.’ There are similar stones with these marks at other piers at the Shannon Estuary developed by the Shannon Commissioners.

A stone near the pier is engraved with a vertical arrow and the initials ‘SC’ for the Shannon Commissioners (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Like many of these piers along the banks of the Shannon Estuary, the pier at Kilteery was designed so that boats could tie off the end and load or unload cargoes. But it was never designed as a harbour where boats would stay overnight or for even longer periods. The produce loaded there was carried directly to Kilrush or Limerick, both customs ports, and then transferred to seagoing vessels.

Within a few years, it was clear that Kilteery pier had not become an important point for exporting produce from the areas around Athea, Abbeyfeale and Newcastle, as Lord Clare had hoped. Perhaps the Famine added to these problems. But it was also noted in the 1840s that the pier was in the wrong place, ‘a little below Foynes,’ when Foynes and Glin were more appropriate sites for piers.

Lord Clare not only helped financially in building Kilteery pier, but also spent money on a new road when, it is said, the landlords in Glin and Askeaton had rejected the opportunity to have improvements on their land. On the other hand, the landlord of Foynes, Thomas Spring Rice (1790-1866), Lord Monteagle, who had first initiated the Shannon Commissioners, later spent money on providing facilities at Foynes, and this, in time, became the most important port on the Shannon estuary.

By the end of the 1840s, most of the cargo landed at Kilteery was manure, probably sea manure, sand and seaweed, while most of the cargo loaded at Kilteery was from the small coal pits near to the pier, and lime that was shipped to parts of south Co Clare as fertiliser.

The Board of Works took over most of the Shannon piers from the Shannon Commissioners in 1885, and responsibility for most of the estuary piers in Co Limerick later passed to Limerick County Council.

A signboard at the end of the pier commemorates the associations of Kilteery with Sean Finn, a West Limerick IRA activist, Mary Spring Rice of nearby Mount Trenchard House, and Mary Childers.

Finn was born Michael John Finn in 1897 in Rathkeale, where he joined the IRA in 1915. Mary Spring-Rice offered Finn the use of her yacht and a hiding place at Mount Trenchard. Finn kidnapped and smuggled the British General Cuthbert Lucas from Fermoy, Co Cork to the Shannon at Kilteery. While the British were searching for Lucas, Finn handed him over to the East Limerick IRA, and in process the general either escaped or was released in Pallaskenry on 30 July 1920.

Finn was shot dead nearby in Ballyhahill 100 years ago on 31 March 2021. Earlier this year, his grandson, Minister Niall Collins, laid a wreath on behalf of the family at Finn’s grave in Rathkeale.

The pier at Kilteery was built with high levels of technical skill and craft work, and it retains many of its original features, including limestone capstans, flagstones and kerbs. The pier has been repaired in recent years, and is a popular bathing spot. While some stones seem to have shifted significantly, the pier remains an interesting focal point on the coastline of the Shannon Estuary.

The pier at Kilteery has been repaired in recent years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)