Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral and USPG: Sunday 4 December 2022

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Matthew 3: 3) … walking along Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Advent began last Sunday, and today is the Second Sunday of Advent.

Later today, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. However, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, The reading suggested in the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced by Lichfield Cathedral this year;

2, praying with the Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Matthew 3: 3) … the Dark Hedges near Gracehill, Co Antrim (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 3: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”.’

4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Saint John the Baptist in a stained glass window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Reflect on how Jesus gives his disciples a share in his work (ministry). Think about the opportunities we have to take up that work. What would it look like? What would my role be? How can we help one another take on a share in Jesus’s work?

Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds, that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is been ‘Human Rights in the Philippines.’ This theme is introduced this morning with an excerpt from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) human rights report by USPG:

Human rights in the Philippines have been under threat for years. Perhaps the most appalling example of the stripping away of human rights is the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, which governed from 1965 until 1986. Marcos used martial law to increase the detention, torture and murder of students, journalists, activists and religious leaders who spoke out against the government. Over 3,000 people were killed, 35,000 tortured and 70,000 arrested by the Marcos regime.

The legacy of terror continued during the presidencies of Arroyo and Aquino before Duterte made things even worse. Ferdinand Marcos Jr has just been elected President of the Philippines and many are scared his regime will match the human rights record of his father.

The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) is an independent nationalist church, formed in 1902. The IFI self-identifies as a church ‘for God and for country’, where their interpretation of country centres on the people of the Philippines, the poor and marginalised in particular. Consequently, the IFI have worked to protect indigenous people from the persecution perpetrated by successive governments.

To read more about the IFI’s human rights activism and what the international community can do to help the Philippines, visit: www.uspg.org.uk/human-rights-in-the-philippines.php

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (Advent II) in these words:

O come, Prince of Peace,
and hear the voice of the oppressed.
Pull down the mighty,
exalt the meek
and bind up the broken hearted.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea’ (Matthew 3: 1) … a mosaic in Saint John’s Monastery, Tolleshunt Knights, shows Saint John the Baptist with his parents Saint Zechariah and Saint Elizabeth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Tuesday 30 August 2022

Magda’s Irish home … Dundarave House in Bushmills, Co Antrim, was the home of Magdalene (Fisher), Lady Macnaghten, for whom Vaughan Williams wrote the tune ‘Magda’

Patrick Comerford

Today the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer (1688), with a Lesser Festival in the Church of England.

Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

Newport Pagnell United Reformed Church can be seen through an arch on High Street … John Bunyan (1628-1688) was part of the Cromwellian garrison in Newport Pagnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

John Bunyan was born at Elstow in Bedfordshire in 1628. He was largely self-educated and used the Bible as his grammar. He read very few other books, and they were all piously Protestant in nature, yet he produced Pilgrim’s Progress, probably the most original text of spiritual genius that century, telling the story of the man Christian on his journey through life to God.

Pilgrim’s Progress was not written while John Bunyan was a prisoner in Bedford gaol, as often stated, but during a confinement some years later. History tells us little of the man but what is clear from his writings is that the salvation of the soul was what mattered most to him. He died on this day in 1688.

We sang his only hymn, ‘He who would valiant be,’ to the well-known tune by Vaughan Williams as the processional hymn at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford on Sunday [28 August 2022].

Luke 21: 21, 34-36 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 21 ‘Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it …

34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’



Today’s reflection: ‘Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise’

For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

This morning [30 August 2022], I invite you to join me in listening to the hymn ‘Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise’ by Canon John Ellerton (1826-1893).

Vaughan Williams wrote the tune Magda with this hymn in mind, but also gave it some interesting Irish connections.

The tune was first published in 1925 in Songs of Praise, where it is chosen as the setting for this hymn.

Vaughan Williams named the tune Magda because he wrote it in preparation for the wedding of Magdalene Fisher (1903-2002), his niece by marriage, who was about to marry the future Sir Anthony Macnaghten (1899-1972) on 27 February 1926.

After World War II, the couple moved to his family home, Dundarave House in Bushmills, Co Antrim. In 1955, Sir Antony Macnaghten succeeded to the family title as tenth baronet and as Chief of the Macnachtan Clan. The first Macnaghten moved from Scotland to Ireland in the 16th century and served as secretary to the MacDonnells, Earls of Antrim. The lands they acquired included a large portion of the village of Bushmills, which the clan rebuilt in the late 1800s. The family motto is: ‘Be not wiser nor the Highest, I hope in God.’

When her husband died in 1972, Magda continued to live in Northern Ireland until her death in February 2002 at the age of 98.

One of the hymns sung at her funeral on 1 March 2002 in Dunluce, Parish Church was ‘For all the saints, who from the their labours rest.’ Her uncle Vaughan Williams had composed the tune Sine Nomine for that hymn by Bishop Walsham How (1823-1897).

The tune Magda is used for the hymn ‘Go forth for God; go forth for the world in peace’ by John Raphael Peacey (1869-1971) in both the New English Hymnal (No 321) and the Irish Church Hymnal (No 455), while Ellerton’s hymn ‘Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise’ is often set to the tune ‘Ellers’ by FJ Hopkins (1818-1901), re-harmonised by Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), with Vaughan Wlliams’s Magda as an alternative tune (see New English Hymnal, No 250) .

Like Vaughan Williams and Sir Anthony Macnaghten, Canon John Ellerton was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an authority on hymns, wrote or translated over 80 hymns, and contributed to Hymns Ancient and Modern. His best-known hymn is, perhaps, ‘The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended.’ He is said to have written that hymn in 1870 as he made his nightly walk to teach at a Mechanics’ Institute. It was published that year in 1870 for A Liturgy for Missionary Meetings.

He was born in Clerkenwell into an evangelical family, and was educated at King William’s College on the Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1849; MA 1854), where he came under the influence of Frederick D Maurice.

He was ordained deacon in 1850 and priest in 1851 by the Bishop of Chichester, and at first was curate of Eastbourne, Sussex, and then Curate of Brighton Lecturer of Saint Peter’s, Brighton.

In 1860, he became chaplain to Lord Crewe and Vicar of Crewe Green in Cheshire. There he chaired the education committee at the Mechanics’ Institute for the local Railway Company. Reorganising the Institute, he made it one of the most successful in England. He taught classes in English and Bible History, and organised one of the first Choral Associations in the Midlands.

While he was Vicar of Crewe Green, he wrote this hymn in 1866 for the Malpas, Middlewich and Nantwich Choral Association in Cheshire.

He was co-editor with Bishop William Walsham How (1823-1897) and others of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) Church Hymns (1871).

In 1872, he became Rector of Saint Oswald’s, Hinstock, Shropshire, in the Diocese of Lichfield. In 1876, he moved to Barnes, then in Surrey, a west London suburb. There he became very involved in the work of SPCK. However, the work among a large population broke him down and he had to go abroad for a year, serving as Chaplain at Pegli in Italy (1884-1885). He returned to England and the small Essex parish in White Roding was his last.

During his final illness, he was made an honorary canon of St Alban’s Cathedral in 1892, but was never installed. It is said that as he lay dying hymns flowed from his lips in unceasing praise to God. He died in Torquay in Devon on 15 June 1893, aged 66.

Ellerton refused to register a copyright on any of his hymns, claiming that if they ‘counted worthy to contribute to Christ’s praise in the congregation, one ought to feel very thankful and humble.’ To hear them offered in worship was reward enough for him.

Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise
With one accord our parting hymn of praise.
Guard thou the lips from sin, the hearts from shame,
That in this house have called upon thy name.

Grant us thy peace, Lord, through the coming night;
Turn thou for us its darkness into light;
From harm and danger keep thy children free,
For dark and light are both alike to thee.

Grant us thy peace throughout our earthly life;
Peace to thy Church from error and from strife;
Peace to our land, the fruit of truth and love;
Peace in each heart, thy Spirit from above.

Thy peace in life, the balm of every pain;
Thy peace in death, the hope to rise again;
Then, when thy voice shall bid our conflict cease,
Call us, O Lord, to thine eternal peace.

Dunluce Castle near Bushmills, Co Antrim … Vaughan Williams wrote the tune ‘Magda’ for the wedding of his niece by marriage Magdalene Fisher and the future Sir Anthony Macnaghten (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Tuesday 30 August 2022 (John Bunyan):

The Collect:

God of peace,
who called your servant John Bunyan to be valiant for truth:
grant that as strangers and pilgrims
we may at the last
rejoice with all Christian people in your heavenly city;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with your servant John Bunyan
to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG prayer diary all this week is ‘A New Province,’ inspired by the work of the Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola (IAMA), made up of dioceses in Mozambique and Angola, the second and third largest Portuguese-speaking countries in the world.

The Right Revd Vicente Msosa, Bishop of the Diocese of Niassa in the Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola, shares his prayer requests in the USPG Prayer Diary throughout this week.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for terrorism to cease as many innocent souls continue to be killed every day in Cabo Delgado.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Francis Hutchinson, Rector of Passeham who was also a bishop in Ireland

A man and his daughter by the Flemish painter Jan Vierpyl (1721) … now believed to depict Bishop Francis Hutchinson (National Gallery of Ireland)

Patrick Comerford

I took a walk along the banks of the Great Ouse River between Stony Stratford and Passenham during the weekend. Earlier, I had finished writing a magazine feature that refers to the church in Passenham, where the dedication to Saint Guthlac (674-715) is rare.

About 1,000 years after Saint Guthlac, Francis Hutchinson was the Rector of Passenham in 1706-1727, and was also Bishop of Down and Connor from 1720 until his death in 1739. He was a key figure in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and was obsessed with witchcraft and with trying to convert Irish-speaking population of Rathlin Island.

But how did this 18th century bishop in the Church of Ireland find himself in this small parish in the Diocese of Peterborough and this small village in Northamptonshire, on the outskirts of Milton Keynes?

Francis Hutchinson (1660-1739) was born in Carsington in Derbyshire, on 2 January 1660. He studied at Catherine Hall, Cambridge (BA 1680, MA 1684, DD 1698), and was ordained deacon (1683) and priest (1684) by Henry Compton, Bishop of London.

He was first a curate (lecturer) in Widdington, Essex (1684), and then became Vicar of Hoxne, Suffolk (1690). He became perpetual curate (vicar) of Saint James’s, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in 1692 and resigned from Hoxne when he became the Rector of Passenham in 1706.

Throughout those years, Hutchinson was known for his low church latitudinarianism and his sympathy for Protestant dissenters. But he was also a key early figure in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).

Following the Hanoverian succession, Hutchinson was seen as a dependable Whig. He was a prolific writer, constantly writing pamphlets supporting the Whigs on the great issues of the day, such as the war of Spanish succession.

His tracts repeated Whig ideology and anti-Catholic propaganda. His most famous work, An historical essay concerning witchcraft (1718), defended the Whigs’ social and cultural ideology, advocating sociable forms of religion and condemning unsociable forms of religion such as traditional witchcraft beliefs.

Although there was a widespread belief in and fear of witchcraft, witchcraft trials and executions were extremely rare. The last person in England was executed for witchcraft in Exeter in 1685.

Hutchinson began writing his book on witchcraft in the early 18th century while he was still in Passenham. By then, accusations of witchcraft continued to be made. Occasionally these led to trials, such as the trial of Jane Wenham in Hertfordshire in 1712.

Wenham was acquitted after a bitter and socially disturbing trial that Hutchinson attended. As a result, he became convinced that witchcraft trials posed a serious threat to public order and to social and political stability.

Through the influence of Francis Godolphin (1678-1766), 2nd Earl of Godolphin, Hutchinson became a royal chaplain on 17 March 1715. Then, on the recommendation of two leading Whigs – the Lord Chancellor Thomas Parker (1667-1732), 1st Earl of Macclesfield, and William Wake (1657-1737), Archbishop of Canterbury – he became Bishop of Down and Connor in 1720 following the death of Edward Smith.

Archbishop William King refused to consecrate Hutchinson, leaving the task to a commission formed mainly of English bishops, and he was finally consecrated bishop on 22 January 1721.

Hutchinson soon found he was thoroughly disliked by the other Irish bishops. John Evans, Bishop of Meath, was concerned by his lack of social skill and reluctance to socialise with the other bishops. Other bishops dismissed him as political appointee, eager to collect the income his see offered but indifferent to its spiritual needs. Indeed, he was more concerned with his temporal duties in the House of Lords than with his spiritual duties as a bishop.

In his own diocese, he was denounced by his largely Tory clergy for not being concerned about the large numbers of Presbyterians in the diocese. There, he continued to be a vocal supporter of the Whig and Hanoverian regime, but most of his literary output was concerned with matters religious and economic.

For Hutchinson, Catholicism posed the greatest threat to the Anglican status quo in Ireland. Yet he argued that the Penal Laws, passed from 1691, had failed to achieve the anticipated mass conversion of Catholics. Instead, he encouraged printing religious materials in Irish, such as the Book of Common Prayer, the catechism, a primer, the Psalms and the New Testament.

In his scheme to convert the Irish-speaking Catholic population of Rathlin Island, he built a charity school and church and printed a bilingual catechism, written in a new, easy-to-read, phonetic form of the Irish language he developed.

Hutchinson’s catechism (1722) used a more phonetic writing system that bore a closer resemblance to English than traditional literary Irish. He consequently increased the number of letters in the Irish alphabet from 18 to 26, and printed his Irish translations in a Roman typeface rather than the traditional Gaelic one. But his hope remained that English would supplant Irish as the common language.

He chose Rathlin Island as the site for a pilot scheme because it was one of the few places in his diocese with a large proportion of Irish-speaking Catholics. There was no resident Catholic priest resident on Rathlin to oppose his plans, and in 1722, the bishop confirmed 40 Catholic schoolchildren from Rathlin.

But his Rathlin project was controversial and eventually failed. His reforms of the written Irish language were mocked and condemned by his clergy and bishops. A squib on his versatility, published in Dublin in 1725-1726 as a broadsheet, is attributed to Dean Jonathan Swift.

Eventually, his experience of living among Catholics on his estate near Portglenone (1729-1731) convinced Hutchinson that only a small proportion of Irish Catholics were committed to a bloody rebellion or the slaughter of Protestants.

Hutchinson also wrote pamphlets on the social, cultural, and economic ‘improvement’ of Ireland, suggesting ways to develop fisheries, find employment for the large numbers of poor, make the River Bann more navigable, and drain the bogs around Lough Neagh.

Despite the hostility he faced, Hutchinson remained in the diocese until his death, living first in Lisburn and from 1730 at his new estate in Portglenone, Co Antrim. He died on 23 June 1739 at Portglenone, and was buried two days later under the chancel in the private chapel he built there in 1737.

He was twice married, to Dame Mary Crofts Read and to Peregrine, or Anne, North. His sons-in-law included John Hamilton, Dean of Dromore, and John Ryder, Archbishop of Tuam. His younger brother, Samuel Hutchinson (1666-1748), fought at the Battle of the Boyne, and was the father of: Samuel Hutchinson, Dean of Dromore (1729-1759), Archdeacon of Connor (1736-1759) and Bishop of Killala (1759-1780); Francis Hutchinson, Archdeacon of Down (1733-1768); and James Hutchinson, Vicar of Killead.

Samuel Hutchinson was also the ancestor of Richard Hely-Hutchinson (1756-1825), 1st Earl of Donoughmore, and John Hely-Hutchinson (1757-1832), 2nd Earl of Donoughmore.

Saint Guthlac’s Church in Passenham, near Stony Stratford … Francis Hutchinson was the Rector of Passenham (1706-1727) and Bishop of Down and Connor (1720-1739) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Further reading:

M Brown, CI McGrath and TP Power (eds), Converts and conversion in Ireland, 1650-1850 (Dublin, 2005)

P McNally, ‘Irish and English interests: national conflict within the Church of Ireland episcopate in the reign of George I’, Irish Historical Studies 39 (1995), pp 295-314.

A Sneddon, Witchcraft and Whigs: the life of Bishop Francis Hutchinson, 1660–1739 (Manchester and New York, 2008)

A Sneddon, ‘Hutchinson, Francis’ Dictionary of Irish Biography, (last revised October 2009).

A deserted castle by the River Suir and tales of a war-like clan

Ballynore Castle, also known as Dove Hill or Duffhill Castle, between Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Going back over my photographs from my ‘road trip’ through the southern counties of Ireland as summer was fading and autumn was still in its early days, I came across some photographs I had taken of Ballynoran Castle in Co Tipperary.

Most people passing by probably pay little attention to this sad, decaying tower house by roadside, and we might have missed it too had we not stopped for lunch at the Meadows and Byrne Village on the way from Carrick-on-Suir to Clonmel.

The Meadows and Byrne Village is a fashionable place to stop, with Blarney Woollen Mills, the Linen Loft and cafés and food shops. But Ballynoran Castle is centuries older, on the opposite side of the road, close to the banks of the River Suir and the border between Co Tipperary and Co Waterford.

Ballynoran Castle is also known as Dove Hill or Duffhill Castle, and it is one of a series of tower houses built in the 15th and 16th centuries and lining the northern banks of the River Suir in Co Tipperary.

This four-storey tower is fighting a losing battle with the encroaching ivy, and it difficult both to see any defining features and to unearth anything about its earlier history. The second storey has a latrine in the north-west corner and a fireplace on the north side, while the third storey has a south-east angle loop.

The tower house is said to have been built by the Mandeville family on land once controlled by the O’More family. It was garrisoned by Sir Thomas Butler of Cahir Castle in 1542, but a century later was noted in the Civil Survey as being ‘a small castle wanting repaire.’

Ballynore Castle was ‘a small castle wanting repaire’ by 1542 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The de Mandeville family came to Ireland with the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. Robert de Mandeville and others murdered William de Burgh, the ‘Brown’ Earl of Ulster, in 1333. The murder reflected the disintegration of Norman rule and triggered a resurgence of Gaelic strength and power in Ulster.

Edmund Curtis repeated the claim that the de Mandeville family had prudently adopted an Irish surname, MacQuillan, in the face of the Gaelic rebellion. The story claimed that the McQuillan family is descended from Hugelin de Mandeville, with the name McQuillan derived from the Irish Mac Uighilín, meaning son of Hugelin.

Edward MacLysaght perpetuated this myth in the 1950s and 1960s in his series of Irish Families books. However, this notion has since been challenged by historians, drawing on sources that show clearly that the McQuillans and de Mandevilles were two different families.

Dunluce Caste, Co Antrim … once the seat of the Clan McQuillan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Clan McQuillan originally claimed descent from Fiacha MacUillin, youngest son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The family was associated mainly with the north Antrim coast, where they once lived at Dunluce Caste and engaged in many battles with the Scottish McDonnell clan.

Another account says the McQuillans came from Scotland in the 1200s as hired mercenaries, and were the Lords of Route from the late 13th century. According to the Annals of Ulster, a bloody feud between the MacQuillan and the O’Cahan clans started in 1442.

By the 1460s, with the earldom of Ulster near its end, it is said the surviving de Mandevilles of north Antrim deserted their manors in Twescard and sold their interests to the MacQuillans who were already established there.

The MacQuillans renamed Twescard the Route, after their ‘rout,’ a common term then for a private army. Their principal residence in the Route was at Dunluce Castle, near the mouth of the River Bush.

They built their castle on the cliffs around 1500, and the earliest written record of the castle dates from 1513. The earliest features of the castle are two large drum towers about 9 metres (30 ft) in diameter on the east side, both remains of the castle built by the McQuillans after becoming Lords of the Route.

The feud between the MacQuillan and the O’Cahan clans came to end in 1559, when the MacDonnells of the Glens, once allies of the MacQuillans, turned on them. Sorley Boy MacDonnell, with the aid of levies from Scotland, launched a mass assault on the Route against the MacQuillans. The final battle of this assault was at Aura, and saw the end of the MacQuillans and the conquest of the Route by the MacDonnells.

The bloodletting, warrior lifestyles of the MacQuillans of the Route was abandoned by later generation of the family when their direct descendants became Quakers.

In Wexford in the early 20th century, Edward McQuillan claimed to be The McQuillan or head of the Clan McQuillan. He bought Slaney View in Westgate, once the Wexford townhouse of the Perceval family of Slaney Manor, and renamed the house Dunluce.

Edward McQuillan was one of the prominent Quakers in Wexford in his day and died in 1941. The former Quaker Meeting House in High Street, Wexford, dating from 1657, had closed in 1927 following the departure from Wexford of the three remaining Thompson families.

Dunluce at Westgate, Wexford … renamed by Edward McQuillan, a prominent Quaker (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A ‘virtual tour’ of the 12 ‘extreme’ points at the edges of Ireland

Sunrise on the banks of the River Shannon in Athlone in the heart of Ireland … but what are the furthest extremes of the island? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have to accept at this stage that I am not going to Greece this year, and – much to my regret – my holiday in Thessaloniki and Halkidiki at the end of August and beginning of September has now been cancelled.

Of course, I would prefer to be healthy this year, and hope to travel to Greece on a number of occasions next year, than to travel to Greece now and not be able to go there at all this year. And I would hate to find out that I had either brought Covid-19 with me to Greece or, instead, brought it back to Ireland.

Now, by way of compensation, I am planning 10 or 12 days in southern Ireland, visiting favourite places – and some new places – in counties Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford.

Living in Askeaton for the past three years or more, I have been able to visit parts of Ireland that might have been more difficult to reach in other circumstances, from the Aran Islands in Galway Bay to the extremities of the Kerry peninsulas.

What are the furthest extremes of Ireland that you have visited?

When we take the map of the full island and exclude offshore islands and rocky outcrops – ignoring Rockall and Rathlin for example – there are 12 ways of defining the extreme points of Ireland: the whole island; the Republic of Ireland, excluding Northern Ireland; and then Northern Ireland on its own.

On the cliffs above the Giant’s Causeway … the farthest north I have been in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Four extreme points on the mainland of Ireland:

The extreme points of the mainland of Ireland, in clockwise direction, are:

North: Banba’s Crown at the tip of Malin Head on the Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal (Latitude: 55° 23′ 4″ N)

East: Burr Point on Ards Peninsula, Co Down (5° 25′ 58″ W)

South: Brow Head, near Mizen Head, Co Cork (51° 26′ 52″ N)

West: Dunmore Head, Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry (10° 28′ 46″ W)

The geographical centre of Ireland is 8.85 km north-north-west of Athlone Town in the townland of Carnagh East, Co Roscommon on the west shore of Lough Ree.

It is interesting that the most northern point on the island is in the Republic of Ireland and not in Northern Ireland, that the point furthest east is in Northern Ireland, and the extreme points south and west are so close to one another (at least as the crow flies).

Mizen Head … the furthest south I have been in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have not been to all these extremities. But the furthest north, east, south and west I have been on the island of Ireland to date are:

North: the Giant’s Causeway, Co Antrim (55° 14′ 27″ N). My most recent visit to the Giant’s Causeway was on 12 November 2016, when I was on a visit to the North Antrim coast.

East: Donaghadee, on the Ards Peninsula, Co Down (5.53° W). I was there in September 1998 to speak at the Annual Conference of the Church of Ireland Men’s Society in Donaghadee Parish Church on ‘The 1798 Rebellion and the Church of Ireland.’ During that visit I stood on the shoreline, with a clear view across to the coast of Scotland.

South: The furthest south I have been is at Mizen Head, visiting the lighthouse or signal station (51° 27' 00" north) on 21 May 2016. Earlier that same day I had lunch in O’Sullivan’s in Crookhaven (51° 28' 09" north), which claims to serve the ‘most southerly pint in Ireland.’

West: When I travelled through the Dingle Peninsula on 20 September 2017, I stood at the end of western tip of Slea Head (51° 28' 09" N), near Dunmore Head, looking at the Blasket Islands.

Looking out at the Blasket Islands from the western tip of Slea Head (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The geographical centre of Ireland, according to the Irish Ordnance Survey, is in the townland of Carnagh East, Co Roscommon on the west shore of Lough Ree, where the 8° Meridian West meets the 53°30' North Latitude. It is opposite the Cribby Islands and 8.85 km north-north-west of Athlone Town. Lecarrow is the closest population centre.

An alternative centre-point for Ireland has been placed, at a point 3 km south of Athlone in east Co Roscommon. So, if I have to place myself in the middle of Ireland, then I have been to Athlone many times, and on the shores of Lough Ree, and enjoyed a rink in Sean’s Bar, which claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland, and perhaps the pub in the heart of Ireland too.

Wicklow Harbour … probably the furthest east I have been in the Republic of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But I have not been to all the extremities of the Republic of Ireland either. They are:

North: Banba’s Crown at the tip of Malin Head on the Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal (Latitude: 55° 23′ 4″ N)

East: Wicklow Head, Co Wicklow (05° 99′ 78″); although, if the islands are included, the point furthest east is Lambay Island (06° 00′ 54″ W)

South: Brow Head, near Mizen Head, Co Cork (Latitude: 51° 26′ 52″ N)

West: Dunmore Head, Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry (Longitude: 10° 28′ 46″ W)

The furthest north, east, south and west I have been in the Republic of Ireland to date are:

North: The furthest north I have been in the Republic is Redcastle on the Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal, when I was at an ordination in the late 1980s, or Arnold’s Hotel, in Dunfanaghy, when the then Bishop Michael Jackson invited me to speak at the Clogher Clergy Conference. So, I need to make some careful calculations to figure out this piece of extreme tourism.

East: Wicklow Town, the tip of Howth Head or the shores of Portrane, Co Dublin, looking out onto Lambay Island. I never managed to complete a boat trip from Skerries to Lambay Island one summer’s evening some years ago, and I have not yet walked out to the edge of Wicklow Town. So, once again, I need to make some difficult calculations.

South: Mizen Head and Crookhaven.

West: The end of western tip of Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula.

Looking out at Lambay Island from the shores of Portrane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The four extreme points of mainland Northern Ireland, excluding the islands, are:

North: Benbane Head, Co Antrim (55°15′ N)

East: Burr Point, Ards Peninsula, Co Down (5° 25′ 58″ W)

South: a point south of Greencastle, Co Down (54° 2′ N)

West: Bradoge Bridge, Co Fermanagh (8°10′ W), and the most westerly town in Northern Ireland is nearby Belleek (8°10′ W).

The four extreme limits of Northern Ireland I have visited are:

North: the Giant’s Causeway, Co Antrim (55° 14′ 27″ N)

East: Donaghadee, on the Ards Peninsula, Co Down (5.53° W)

South: The furthest south I have been in Northern Ireland is Kilkeel, Co Down (54.059°N), on the road from Rostrevor to Newcastle.

West: A point west Belleek, Co Fermanagh (8°10′ W), crossing the border on a minor road from Bundoran, Co Donegal, into Garrison, Co Fermanagh, around 1970.

Sean’s Bar in Athlone, beneath the shadows of Athlone Castle, claims to date back to 900 AD (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Dyott memorials survive in the Dyott Chapel in new library in Lichfield

The Dyott coat-of-arms on a family memorial in the Dyott Chapel in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During my visit to the new Library in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, last week, I spent some time looking at the Dyott Chapel on the north side of the church and the monuments there to members of the Dyott family.

One of my earliest freelance features in the Lichfield Mercury was on the Dyott family, and I was reminded too that there were many connections between the Dyott family of Freeford and the Comberford family of Comberford Hall in the 17th century.

I was in Lichfield last week at the invitation of Lichfield Civic Society to speak about the Comberford family’s links with Lichfield. A previous speaker, in June 2016, was Richard Dyott who spoke about the history of the Dyott family of Freeford.

Freeford Manor is an 18th-century country house and Grade II listed building near Lichfield, and has been the home of the Dyott family since the late 16th or early 17th century.

A window depicting Saint Richard and Saint George – commemorating family names – in the Dyott Chapel in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

At the time of the Domesday Book, Freeford (Fraiforde) was a substantial manor with about 720 acres, held by a one Ranulph as a tenant of the Bishop of Chester.

There was a leper hospital at Freeford in early mediaeval times, as well as a quarry that provided building stone for Lichfield Cathedral. Edward II stopped at Freeford in 1326, before entering Lichfield. John of Freeford was the MP for Lichfield in 1377. He had three daughters but no sons, and when he died the estate became divided and was not reassembled for 300 years.

John Dyott (1519-1580) appears to have moved from Dorchester on Thames to Stychbroke, near Lichfield, in 1549. He was a barrister and was Bailiff of Lichfield on three occasions. Dyott family tradition says he made the Manor of Freeford his home in 1549.

This John Dyott of Stychbroke was the father of Anthony Dyott, MP for Lichfield and the first of four Dyotts to sit for Lichfield at Westminster. Anthony Dyott consolidated the family’s hold on Freeford Manor by 1616 and also acquired lands to the east in Whittington.

His son, Anthony Dyott, was a barrister of the Inner Temple and Recorder of Tamworth and became MP for Lichfield. He successfully reassembled the three parts of the Manor of Freeford.

The elaborate memorial to Sir Richard Dyott in the Dyott Chapel in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

His son, the first of many members of the family known as Richard Dyott, married into the Dorrington family of Stafford.

Through many intermarriages over the next 400 years, the Dyott family became linked with many prominent Staffordshire families.

Sir Richard Dyott of Lichfield was one of the trustees of the Comberford estates in the 17th century

Sir Richard Dyott was one of three members of the trust into which William Comberford placed all his interests in the Comberford estates on 16 May 1641, the two other trustees being to a trust formed by three trustees, Sir Richard Dyott of Lichfield, John Birch of Cannock and Thomas Wollaston. The trust was formed to ensure that Comberford Hall and other the estates remained in the hands of the Comberford family in the face of a looming crisis.

Although the Dyott family supported the Royalist side during the English Civil War, the family managed to survive with its property intact. Richard Dyott was charged by the Cromwellians with involvement in the Battle of Edgehill, but pleaded that although he was present, he took no part in the battle.

An inscription in Dam Street, Lichfield, marking the spot where John ‘Dumb’ Dyott shot Lord Brooke (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Richard Dyott’s deaf-mute brother, John ‘Dumb’ Dyott, is said to have fired the shot from the cathedral tower that killed Richard Greville, Lord Brooke, on Dam Street on 2 March 1643 during one of the sieges of Lichfield. John Dyott was William Comberford’s godson, while his brother, Matthew Dyott of Stychbrooke, was married to Mary Babington, a distant cousin of William Comberford, and a sister-in-law of another Comberford trustee, John Birch.

Freeford Hall was saved for the Dyott family, and another Richard Dyott was MP for Lichfield in 1690-1715. When he died in 1719, his son, also Richard Dyott, decided to move from Lichfield to Freeford. He built a new, three-bayed, red brick house about 1730, and this was extended and improved throughout the 18th century.

Richard’s son, also Richard Dyott, had a son, Matthew Dyott, who married Elizabeth, Boulton, sister of Matthew Boulton, a leading member of the Lunar Society in Birmingham.

Two Richards later, Richard Dyott, who had a townhouse on the site of the former Woolworth shop in Market Street, Lichfield, began building a new Freeford Manor to replace Freeford Hall.

The memorial to Richard Dyott, Recorder of Lichfield, who died in 1813 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A century later, yet another Richard Dyott was Recorder of Lichfield again and was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1798 This Richard became the first President of the Staffordshire Agricultural Society and was known as an agricultural improver. He had no children, and when he died in 1813 the Freeford estate was inherited by his brother, General William Dyott.

William’s military career, spanning almost half a century, brought him to Ireland, Nova Scotia, the West Indies, Egypt and the Netherlands, and he was an aide de camp to King George III.

A posting to Egypt in 1801 brought an end to William’s romantic interest in Maria Gresley of Drakelow Hall, north-east of Lichfield, near Burton upon Trent.

But during another posting to Ireland in 1805, Dyott proposed to Eleanor Thompson of Greenmount, Co Antrim. William and Eleanor were the parents of a daughter and two sons. But in 1813, on the excuse of health concerns, Eleanor moved to London and Bristol to avail of the Turkish baths in Downing Street and to enjoy the hot springs at Clifton.

A year later, in 1814, Eleanor sought a legal separation. William accused her of having an affair with her physician Charles Dunne, and took a civil action for ‘criminal conversation’ in 1815. In her counterclaim, Eleanor said William was guilty of adultery and cruelty.

William presented a divorce petition in Parliament, and, despite an admission to his brother-in-law that he had taken ‘improper liberties’ with a young maid, he obtained his divorce and along with it a quarter share of his wife’s interest in over 1,200 acres of plantations and several hundred slaves on the island of St Croix in the Virgin Islands.

William and their children moved to Hanch Hall, three miles north-west of Lichfield, in 1817 and they never again saw Eleanor. When his sister-in-law died in 1826, William moved into Freeford Hall and commissioned the Lichfield architect Joseph Potter to make alterations.

General William Dyott’s memorial in the Dyott Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

William Dyott strongly opposed most progressive reforms of his day, including the abolition of slavery, granting workers’ rights and extending access to education. Initially, he opposed the railway, but eventually the Dyott family became important investors in the development of the railways in the Lichfield area.

When General Dyott died in 1847 at the age of 86, his coffin was taken in a funeral procession from Freeford through the streets of Lichfield at night to the Dyott crypt at Saint Mary’s Church. His memorial in Saint Mary’s describes him as ‘a most kind, most indulgent father’ and refers to ‘the affection of his family,’ but there is no reference to his family.

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Dyott was buried at midnight in 1891 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

He was succeeded by his son, yet another Richard Dyott (1808-1891). He was a director of the South Staffordshire Railway and MP for Lichfield from 1865 to 1880. His coat-of-arms, shown on the colourfully-decorated Victorian railway bridge in Upper John Street, beside Lichfield City rail station, are also displayed on many family monuments in the Dyott Chapel in Saint Mary’s: or, a tiger passant sable, armed and langued gules.

When Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Dick’ Dyott died in 1891, 15,000 people attended his burial at midnight in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield.

The coats of arms of the Anson and Dyott families on the south side of the bridge at John Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This Richard Dyott had no children, and the Dyott estate was inherited by his first cousin, Richard Burnaby who changed his family name to Dyott. His son predeceased him, and so at his death his grandson, Richard Dyott, inherited Freeford. The time this Richard Dyott spent at Freeford was the longest by any family member. He married Mary Paget of Elford Hall, whose family donated the site for Saint Mary’s and Saint George’s Church in Comberford 100 years ago. He died in 1965.

No longer are members of the Dyott family buried at midnight in the crypt beneath the Dyott Chapel in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfeld. But Freeford Manor retains its Georgian character and in September each year the annual Sheriff’s Ride takes a traditional stop at Freeford Manor.

Heraldic symbols of the Dyott family in a memorial in the Dyott Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Finding a cross linked to Pugin in the Hunt Museum

The Pugin Crucifix in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

There is a large collection of crosses in the Hunt Museum in Limerick, including carved and wooden crosses, processional and rood crosses, reliquary and rosary crosses. There is a small array of Penal crosses and Rosary crosses, and a large selection of miscellaneous crosses collected throughout Europe.

These crosses are displayed throughout the museum on every floor and they range from a large French-made, polychrome Romanesque cross, made of wood in the 12th century as a rood cross to a gold, partly-enamelled reliquary cross that is also known as the Mary Queen of Scots Crucifix and that is anecdotally linked to Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587).

I posted last month [15 July 2017] about the processional cross in the museum that is similar in almost every detail to the Bosworth Crucifix or Comerford Cross that was once owned by James Comerford (1807-1881), said to have been made for Richard III, and found in a field near the site the site of the Battle of Bosworth.

But two crosses that caught my attention in particular at the weekend were a cross known as the Pugin Crucifix and the early Irish cross known as the Antrim Cross.

The Pugin Crucifix is a Romanesque figure that is said to have been once owned by the English architect AWN Pugin (1812-1852), whose passion for the Middle Ages helped to ensure the success of the Gothic Revival in architecture.

The Christ figure made for this crucifix has a head that is large in relation to the body, falling forward onto his breast. His moustache, beard and hair are finely engraved. The loin-cloth has a V-shape fold like an apron in the centre. The drapery is treated with some freedom, falling well below knee level at the back. The feet are parallel, the arms bend gently upwards, and the arms and legs ate engraved with fine lines to indicate the muscles and tendons.

This figure was once owned by Dr Leonard Mackey of Edgbaston, the senior physician to the Queen’s Hospital, Birmingham. In 1910, he married Pugin’s granddaughter, Florence Marion Pugin, eldest daughter of the Peter Paul Pugin (1851-1904), which may explain how he inherited the cross.

Leonard Mackey died in 1940, and at one stage the cross was on loan to the British Museum. But it is not clear from the exhibition details how the cross came to the Hunt Museum.

Apart from Pugin’s role in church architecture in Ireland, this crucifix has a special relevance for Ireland as a crucifix of this type served as a model for the head of the 12th century market cross in Tuam, Co Galway.

The Antrim Cross dates from ca 800 AD and was found in the River Bann in the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The Antrim Cross is a bronze and enamel cross dating from ca 800 AD and was found in the River Bann in Co Antrim in the 19th century.

The cross was probably intended to decorate the wooden cover of a shrine or reliquary or was used as the central piece on a cross. It is decorated with enamel and millefiori – cut bundles of coloured glass rods – in geometric and animal designs.

The Antrim Cross is a bronze cross with five equal arms. The cross has five pyramidal bosses each in the form of a truncated pyramid. The side of the pyramids are decorated with interlocking angular fields of yellow enamel, alternating with a similar-coloured design of an arrow within a truncated triangle.

The pyramidal boss at the centre is taller and has angular enamelled panels on two of its four sides. The other two sides, back-to-back, differ in that they are decorated with an animal design, once fully enamelled between its raised outlines.

The flat tops of the bosses are decorated with small squares of millefiori enamel. Rivet-holes in the separately cast base-plate show that this cross was attached to a flat surface, perhaps that of a house-shaped reliquary.

Part of a collection of miscellaneous crosses in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Listening to legends of castles, giants and salmon fishers on the Antrim coast

On the Causeway Coast in Co Antrim, above the Giant’s Causeway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

On my Saturday visit to the Antrim coast two weeks ago [12 November 2016], after walking through the ‘Dark Hedges’ and visiting Gracehill House, I moved on to visit Dunluce Castle, the Giant’s Causeway and the Rope Bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, three of the most popular and most-visited tourist sites in Northern Ireland.

Dunluce Castle is a mediaeval ruin perched precariously on the craggy and treacherous Antrim coast in north-east Ulster. It stands on the edge of a basalt outcropping on the coast between Portballintrae and Portrush.

The steep cliffs and drops beneath the castle may explain why a fort has stood on this site from early times, and the first castle on this site was built in the 13th century by Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster.

The McQuillans came from Scotland in the 1200s as hired mercenaries, and were the Lords of Route from the late 13th century. They built their castle on the cliffs around 1500, and the earliest written record of the castle dates from 1513. The earliest features of the castle are two large drum towers about 9 metres (30 feet) in diameter on the east side, both remains of the castle built by the McQuillans after becoming Lords of the Route.

The McQuillan family continued to hold Dunluce Castle for anonther 55 years until it was taken by the MacDonnells, who came over from Islay in 1554. The McQuillans lost two major battles with the MacDonnells in the mid-16th century, and the McDonnells took Dunluce Castle by force in 1565 after the Battle of Orla. It is said the McDonnells covered a bog with rushes and stationed a few men on firm ground, fooling the McQuillans into charging into the bog.

Dunluce Castle then became the home of the chief of the Clan MacDonnell of Antrim and the Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg from Scotland.

John Mor MacDonald of Dunluce Castle was the second son of ‘Good’ John MacDonald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, 6th chief of Clan Donald in Scotland. His mother, Princess Margaret, was a daughter of King Robert II of Scotland.

In 1584, on the death of James MacDonald, the 6th chief of the Clan MacDonald of Antrim and Dunnyveg, the Antrim Glens were seized by Sorley Boy MacDonnell, one of his younger brothers. Sorley Boy rebuilt Dunluce in the Scottish style, and swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth I.

The castle also has links with the Girona, a ship in the Spanish Armada that foundered on the rocks of the Giant’s Causeway. Sorley Boy MacDonnell retrieved the cannons from the shipwreck and mounted them in the castle. The rest of the cargo was sold, and the funds raised were used to restore the castle. The dead crew of the Girona are said to have been buried in Saint Cuthbert’s graveyard.

Sorley Boy’s son, Randal MacDonnell, was made 1st Earl of Antrim by King James I. Randal and his wife frequently visited the royal court in London and filled the castle with riches including curtains from Cardinal Wolsey and chairs of State.

The countess is aid to have built Saint Cuthbert’s Church near the castle. It was originally thatched and the ceiling plaster was decorated with signs of the zodiac. Saint Cuthbert’s was the only church in Ireland with that name and is thought to be linked to the cult of the saint in Northumbria. Saint Cuthbert’s in Bushmills takes its name from this church in Dunluce.

Dunluce Castle on the Antrim coast … did the castle kitchens ever fall into the sea below? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

A local legend claims that on a stormy night in 1639, as the family was waiting for dinner, the castle kitchens next to the cliff face, along with kitchen staff, collapsed into the sea, and that Lady Antrim refused to live in the castle any longer.

The legend says that only a kitchen boy survived, as he was sitting in a corner of the kitchen that did not collapse. However, the kitchen is still intact and next to the manor house, with the oven, fireplace and entry ways. It was not until the 18th century that the north wall of the castle collapsed and fell into the sea. The east, west and south walls are still standing.

General Munro arrested and imprisoned the Earl of Antrim in 1642 and ransacked the castle. The Earl of Antrim returned to Dunluce Castle after 1666. One of his visitors was Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, who was later martyred on Tyburn Hill.

Dunluce Castle was the seat of the Earls of Antrim until the MacDonnells were impoverishwd of in 1690, following the Battle of the Boyne, when Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim, supported the cause of James II.

The family abandoned Dunluce Castle, moved to Glenarm Castle, and since then Dunluce Castle has deteriorated. When the MacDonnell line looked look dying out, the ttile was restored on many occasions to daughters in the family, whose husbands and sons changed their name to MacDonnell and McDonnell and the family titles were rescued from extinction at different times. Over the years parts of the castle were scavenged and used as materials for nearby buildings.

Alexander Randal Mark McDonnell, 9th Earl of Antrim, still owns Dunluce Castle, but lives in Glenarm Castle. His son and heir, Randal Alexander St John McDonnell, is known as Viscount Dunluce. Dunluce Castle is managed by the Northern Irish Environment Agency.

The castle appeared on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s album Houses of the Holy (1973). It is said to be the inspiration behind the royal castle of Cair Paravel in CS Lewis’s Narnia stories.

In 2011, major archaeological excavations found significant remains of the lost town of Dunluce, razed to the ground during the wars of 1641. Lying beside Dunluce Castle, the town was built around 1608 by Randall MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, and predates the official Plantation of Ulster.

The MacDonnells brought Scottish settlers over to found the trading town of Dunluce. The town, designed to rival Coleraine, had Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh residents, as well as people from Continental Europe. However, the town was a failure because it had no port that could be used for trading.

Over the last five years, the archaeological digs have uncovered cobbled streets and stone merchants’ houses. The digs uncovered a Scottish merchant’s house, built in the first two decades of the 17th century, fronting onto the cobbled streets. The walls survive to waist height with plastered walls, an internal privy and a fireplace. The town also held a courthouse and a dungeon.

The recent excavations have discovered a cobbled street stretching through the town towards the castle, with a blacksmith’s forge, as well as coins dating back to the reigns of Elizabeth I and Charles I, bone combs, dress fastenings, thimble, gaming pieces, and the stem of a wine glass.

A bronze tuning pin used to tune harps suggests the presence of musicians. A 16th century Polish coin, kept as a token by the merchants, provides a reminder of the Scottish migrations to Poland.

Looking down on the Giant’s Causeway from the Causeway Coast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

From Dunluce Castle, I moved on to Bushmills and the Giant’s Causeway, about 5 km further east. The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed by an ancient volcanic eruption, perhaps 50 to 60 million years ago. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a national nature reserve in 1987.

The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 feet) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 feet) thick in places.

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), who was challenged to a fight by a rival Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway so that the two giants could meet. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns, formed by the same ancient lava flow, at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa.

The discovery of the Giant’s Causeway was announced to the wider world in 1693 in a paper to the Royal Society by Sir Richard Bulkeley of Trinity College Dublin, although it had been discovered a year earlier during a visit by William King, Bishop of Derry and later Archbishop of Dublin.

The site received international attention when Dublin artist Susanna Drury exhibited watercolour paintings of it in 1739. The Giant’s Causeway first became popular with tourists in the 19th century.

Today, much of the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is owned and managed by the National Trust. The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown Estate and private landowners.

Crossing Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge near Ballintoy is said to have been first built by salmon fishermen in 1755. The bridge crosses a chasm that is 30 metres (98 feet) deep and 20 metres (66 feet) wide and was first built by fishermen to check their salmon nets.

The rope bridge links the Antrim coast and Carrick-a-Rede Island. Suspended above the rocks and the sea, the rope bridge is a popular tourist destination, attracting thousands of visitors who also come to see the Giant’s Causeway Coast and the Glens of Antrim.

The bridge and the island offer uninterrupted views of Rathlin Island, the coast of Scotland and the Causeway Coast. There are views of the clear, green water flowing around the caves and caverns far below, but the challenge alone makes this a popular attraction.

It is said local salmon fishermen have been building bridges to the island for over 350 years and it has taken many forms over the years. It is no longer used by fishermen during the salmon season. The season once lasted from June until September, but there are few salmon left there today. In the 1960s, almost 300 fish were caught each day, but by 2002 only 300 were caught over the whole season.

In the 1970s, the bridge had only one handrail and large gaps between the slats. A new bridge, tested up to ten tonnes, was built with the help of local climbers and abseilers in 2000. Another bridge was built in 2004. The current bridge was made of wire rope and Douglas fir bridge in Belfast and was built in 2008 at a cost of over £16,000.

From there we travelled along the coast on to Cushendun in the Glens of Antrim to admire the village that is the architectural creation of Clough Williams-Ellis, better known as the architect of Portmeirion in Wales.

A reminder of the centuries old traditions of the fishermen near Ballintoy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

A Saturday morning at the Dark Hedges, a much-photographed tree-lined avenue

The Dark Hedges have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Two weeks ago [13 November 2016], while I was on a tour of the Co Antrim coast that ended in the pretty village of Cushedun, I visited the ‘Dark Hedges,’ which is one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland and attracts tourists from all over the world.

The Dark Hedges is a quiet road near the town of Ballymoney in Co Antrim. It is just a short road surrounded by farmers’ fields, lined with beech trees whose twisted branches form an arch over the road. It has attracted photographers, painters, artists, composers and tourists for decades, and was used recently as a filming location in HBO’s epic series Game of Thrones, representing the King’s Road.

The Antrim-born composer Elaine Agnew premiered her compelling Dark Hedges composition at the BBC Proms in 2012.

This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century. They planned it as a driveway leading up to their home at Gracehill House and as a compelling landscape feature that would impress visitors as they approached the entrance to the Georgian country house.

James Stuart built Gracehill House around 1775 and named it after his wife, Grace Lynd. The family planted 150 beech trees along the avenue leading up to the entrance to their house.

The large estate surrounding the house dates back to the early 17th century, when King James I granted land to a cousin.

King James I estates in Ireland to a family member James Stuart by royal charter. James Stuart was the king’s ambassador to the court in Turin, and the grant included lands in Co Cavan, Co Monaghan and Co Antrim.

Unfortunately, the ambassador never had the opportunity to take up residence and drowned on his way to Ireland.

Later in the 17th century, Brigadier-General William Stuart raised a regiment to fight for William III and fought at Derry, Aughrim, Limerick and the Boyne. Because he was never reimbursed for raising the regiment, he became impoverished him and lost most of his estate.

His son James served with his father and became a colonel. Although severely wounded in battle, James and his wife Jane Irwin from Roscommon went on to have 21 children.

The Dark Hedges provided a tree-lined avenue leading up to Gracehill House, built around 1775 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Co Antrim estates stayed in the Stuart family, although it was some time before they built Gracehill House.

The Revd Irwin Stuart, a son of Colonel James Stuart, was ordained in the Church of Ireland and became Rector of Ballywillan and Ballyrashane, and later of Derrykeighan. He married Elizabeth McDaniel and they had six children – Christopher, James, Charles, Archibald, Elizabeth and Henry. It is not until we read of Irwin’s son James that we hear of Gracehill House being mentioned for the first time.

One of these sons, James Stuart, began building the house around 1775 and named it after his wife, Grace Lynd. Later, James raised a Yeomanry Corp, the 2nd Dunluce regiment, which was heavily involved in the suppression of the 1798 rebellion.

Meanwhile, Gracehill House developed a sense of grandeur, and the beech tree drive leading to the house was planted.

The Revd Charles Stuart, a brother of James Stuart, stayed at home and was ordained in the Church of Ireland. Two of his sons followed in the footsteps of their military forefathers and became officers in the 39th Regiment during in the Napoleonic wars in Spain in 1813-1814.

Eventually, the Stuart family left Gracehill House and settled in North America and across the globe.

More recently, Gracehill House was owned by Major Windsor in 1955 who married a Chichester of Galgorm. It was bought in 1971 by the Gillian family in 1971, who turned the landscape into an 18-hole championship golf course in 1995. It changed hands once again last year [2015].

The present owners are developing the property, including an 18-hole parkland golf course and the Hedges Hotel.

A favourite local story tells of the grey lady, said to glide along the Bregagh Road, sashaying between the gnarled trees. She is said to vanish from sight when she passes the last tree.

Some local people say she is the ghost of a maid from Gracehill House who died in mysterious circumstances centuries ago. Others say she is the daughter of James Stuart, referred to in some genealogical accounts of the family as ‘Cross Peggy.’ Others still say she is a lost spirit from an old, deserted graveyard hidden in the fields nearby. On Hallowe’en, the forgotten graves are said to open and the Grey Lady is joined on her walk by those who were buried beside her.

Today, this unique, tranquil and spell-binding tunnel of ancient beech trees stretches along the Bregagh Road, intertwining and entangling to create a spectacular fusion of light and shadow. With its mysterious and spectacular play of light and tranquillity the site has inspired visiting artists and photographers.

Now known as the Dark Hedges, this tunnel remains a magnificent sight and has become one of the most photographed places in Northern Ireland.

Although the branches of the trees have been pruned in recent years and the tunnel is a little less impressive than it once was, it remains a spectacular sight.

The Dark Hedges Preservation Trust plans to continue preserving, enhancing and promoting the Dark Hedges for future generations, endeavouring to maintain safe access to the site for visitors and local people, and utilising the hedges as a learning tool by improving and developing interpretation around the hedges.

From the Dark Hedges, it was a half-hour drive to Dunluce Castle, and from there we continued on to the Giant’s Causeway, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and Cushendun.

The Dark Hedges Preservation Trust plans to continue preserving, enhancing and promoting the Dark Hedges for future generations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)