Castlemartyr
| Castlemartyr Irish: Baile na Martra | |
| County Cork | |
|---|---|
 Main Street Castlemartyr, County Cork | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | W963732 |
| Location: | 51°54’41"N, 8°3’16"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,600 (2016) |
| Local Government | |
| Dáil constituency: |
Cork East |
Castlemartyr is a village in the eastern parts of County Cork, 25 minutes east of Cork city, six miles east of Midleton, ten miles west of Youghal and four miles from the coast. It has a population of about 1,600 people, in the village and its hinterland.
The village is on the N25 primary road.
The name appears in Irish as Baile na Martra, which has in past ages been written in English as Ballymarter or Ballymartyr.[1]
The town has a 15th-century tower house, Castlemartyr Castle, which is now a ruin,[2][3] and an 18th-century country house (Castlemartyr House, now a hotel).[4]
History
Pre-history
Traces of ancient civilisation, including from the Bronze Age, are to be found in the vicinity of Castlemartyr. This includes a group of tumuli (or barrow mounds), including three examples in the townland of Ballyvorisheen.[5]
There is also evidence of the early inhabitants' attempts to defend themselves and their livestock against marauders and the threat posed by wild animals. These defences were in the form of ringforts (or raths), which were circular earthworks used as dwellings and farmyards. Examples of these structures are to be found in the vicinity of the village.[6]
Ballyoughtera
Some of the earliest evidence for the existence of a town or "vill" in the vicinity of Castlemartyr is to be found in the Pipe Roll of Cloyne. This document lists all lands held by the feudal Bishop of Cloyne and the valuations put on those lands.
Ballyoughtera, now the site of a ruin and graveyard, had likely originally been a monastic settlement which under Norman influence and through their settlement became the focal point for a "ville" or feudal village.
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There had been two adjoining mediæval parishes, Cahirultan and Ballyoughtera and both are known to have been in existence by 1300 at least, when Ballyoughtera was valued at 5 marks and Cahairultan at 3 marks. A reference dated 1364 records that "Richard Kerdyf holds the land of the whole Ville of Martyre". A ville implied a nearby mill where tenant farmers could grind their corn, and a castle, providing those tenants with protection. In this case the castle was Castlemartyr Castle, which was built (on the site of an earlier fortification) for James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond after his appointment as Seneschal of Imokilly in 1420.[3]
Castlemartyr was known as "Leperstown" in ancient times because of the Leper House that is said to have existed near Ballyoughtera, itself said by Smith to have become a village of some note during the Middle Ages.[7] Another historian, Lewis, states that Ballyoughtera Church was built in 1549, only to be destroyed during the conflict of 1641–1642.[8] But there is evidence to suggest that the Church was already in ruins before 1641 (probably as early as 1615) and that it was built before 1539, with a Chancel being added on later, possibly to cope with an expanding population in and around the village.
The Fitzgeralds
In the Norman invasion of Ireland, the FitzGerald dynasty (a Geraldine line) was granted lands in the Barony of Imokilly. In 1575, the Cambro-Norman castle that they built, then called the castle of Ballymartyr, was attacked by Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy, who captured the castle.[9][10]
The Fitzgeralds of Imokilly were known to the local peasantry as the Madraí na Fola ("Dogs of Blood") due to the blood-thirsty disposition they displayed.[11]
Demise of the Fitzgeralds
During the Desmond Rebellion, the Fitzgeralds fought against the forces of Queen Elizabeth I in the region. The Fitzgeralds, together with the other southern lords of the Hiberno-Norman stock (who had become "more Irish and the Irish themselves"), formed the Geraldine League to oppose the Queen's plan to force Protestantism on the Irish people and her attempt to rout the native chiefs and replace them with English landlords. In 1581 the Earl of Ormond overran Imokilly; at Castlemartyr he captured the aged mother of the seneschal, John FitzEdmund, and hung her from the wall of the castle. FitzEdmund eventually submitted to the Earl, but he did not recover his lands. Instead, the property shared the fate of other properties after the Desmond Rebellion. It was confiscated and included in the grant of land between Lismore and Castlemartyr that were given to Sir Walter Raleigh. FitzEdmund himself was arrested in 1585 and died in Dublin Castle in the following year. In 1602, Raleigh's lands around Castlemartyr were bought by Richard Boyle, the First Earl of Cork and ancestor to the Earls of Shannon.[12]
By the early 17th century the FitzGeralds were a spent force. In the south-east corner of the old church in Ballyoughtera, the stone has a boar crest surrounded by triple incised circles and shallow cross carving which is also encircle. At the northern end of Ballyoughtera church ruin is the grave of another Richard Boyle, the 4th Earl of Shannon who died in 1868. This tomb bears the inscription, "A sorrowing wife placed this stone in memory of the best and most affectionate of husbands".
Earls of Shannon
For the next two hundred years the history of Castlemartyr was closely linked with that branch of the Boyle family which have the title Earl of Shannon.[13] In 1689 it was a centre of Protestant resistance against the rule of James II, but was swiftly defeated by forces under Justin MacCarthy who also put down a larger rising at Bandon.
After Orrery's death in 1679, his title was passed on to his oldest son. Orrery's second son had four sons of his own, Roger, Henry, Charles and William, and it was this Henry who became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was elevated to the peerage in 1756 as Baron Castlemartyr, Viscount Boyle, Earl of Shannon.[14] It was he who provided the land for the construction of a new church in the village (St. Anne's Church of Ireland) when an act of Parliament allowed for the dismantling of Ballyoughtera Church and the re-use of some of the stones on the new church.
It was also Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon, who was primarily responsible for the construction and expansion of Castlemarty House.[9] He also set about beautifying the estate between the years 1733 and 1764 and these improvements are mentioned in Smith's History of Cork.[7] On Henry's death in 1764, the estate went to his son, Richard, who like his father attained high political office. Richard carried out further extensions to the mansion house.[13] It was also during this period that Lancelot "Capability" Brown landscaped the estate and planted woods.[15]
Sport
- Gaelic sports: Castlemartyr GAA (which plays hurling and football
- Football: Mogeely Association Football Club
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Castlemartyr) |
References
- ↑ "Castlemartyr / Baile na Martra (see archival records)". Placenames Database of Ireland. http://www.logainm.ie/12218.aspx.
- ↑ "Munster - County Cork - Castle Martyr". The Castles of Ireland. Lee Johnson. http://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/castles/irecastl-Cork.htm. "15th century enclosure castle with a five-storeyed towerhouse, built on the probable site of a 12th century earthwork castle"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Castlemartyr Castle". Castles NL. http://www.castles.nl/castlemartyr-castle.
- ↑ "Castlemartyr House, Castlemartyr, County Cork". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=CO®no=20825002.
- ↑ Denis Power, ed (1994). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork. Dúchas, the Heritage Service. ISBN 0707603234. "CO077-008001- [..] Mound barrow [..] to N of Castlemartyr to Killeagh road [..] According to Fitzgerald (1858, 12), farmer, while levelling mound, discovered cist (CO077-008002-) with larger cover stone containing two human skeletons. One of three tumuli in same townland [of Ballyvorisheen]"
- ↑ Denis Power, ed (1994). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork. Dúchas, the Heritage Service. ISBN 0707603234. "CO077-033---- [..] Ringfort - rath [..] Circular area (39.4m NE-SW) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 0.2m; ext. H 2.85m) [..] stone-faced externally to the NW and SW"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Smith, Charles (1774). The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork. Dublin. https://archive.org/details/ancientandprese00caulgoog.
- ↑ "Ballyoughtera". A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. 1837. https://www.libraryireland.com/topog/B/Ballyoughtera-Imokilly-Cork.php.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Castlemartyr". A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. 1837. http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/C/Castlemartyr-Imokilly-Cork.php.
- ↑ Denis Power, ed (1994). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork. Dúchas, the Heritage Service. ISBN 0707603234. "Castlemartyr Castle was seat of the Seneschals of Imokilly [..] taken by Sir Henry Sidney in 1569 and 1575; came into possession of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, in 17th century; castle restored and lived in by his son the Earl of Orrery, who died in 1679 (Monahan 1980, 7). House (CO077-00501-) built immediately to W in early 18th century by Earls of Shannon"
- ↑ "Cork: Tower power". Irish Examiner. 23 September 2012. https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/foodanddrink/restaurantreviews/cork-tower-power-208261.html.
- ↑ "Reconstructing the estate of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, c. 1602–43 (Issue 2, March/April 2015, Volume 23)". History Ireland Magazine. 2015. https://www.historyireland.com/volume-23/reconstructing-the-estate-of-richard-boyle-first-earl-of-cork-c-1602-43/.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Boyle (Earl of Shannon) - Castlemartyr". Landed Estates Database. NUI Galway. http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/property-show.jsp?id=2735.
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 6 : Boyle, Henry (1682-1764)
- ↑ "Castlemartyr". Coillte. https://www.coillte.ie/site/castlemartyr/. "[Castlemartyr] woodland was once part of a larger demesne that originated around the latter end of the 17th century [..] when landscape architects such as Lancelot 'Capability' Brown were engaged to style the countryside"