Castle & Church (in Ruins) — Lucan Demesne

Located on the NE side of a semi-circular, walled graveyard on the demesne lands of Lucan (Leamhcán/marshy place) House which stands 80m to W. St. Mary's nave and chancel church ruins (ext. dims. 15.9m E-W x 6.5m N-S; int. dims. 15.1m E-W x 4.9m N-S) with residential tower on northeast angle of church forms the N boundary of the parish graveyard (DU017-019002-). The multi-period nave and chancel church with eastern residential tower accessed off the northern wall of the chancel has the remains of acoustic jars still visible in the north wall of the church which were identified by local archaeologist, Helen Farrell.  The pottery jars are still in situ, set into small circular-shaped holes visible in the northern wall of the church and this survival may be unique in Ireland.  The holes for acoustic jars have been identified in St. Mary's Collegiate Church (CO067-029003-) in Youghal, Co. Cork, but the pottery jars no longer survive in the Youghal church.  According to Wikipedia; ‘An acoustic jar, also known by the Greek name echea (ηχεία, literally echoers), or sounding vases, are ceramic vessels found set into the walls, ceilings, and sometimes floors, of medieval churches. They are believed to have been intended to improve the sound of singing. In the Middle Ages the idea of the acoustic vessel re-emerged. Examples have been found in around 200 churches, about half of them in France’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_jar).  According to Valière (2013, 70); 'From the 10th to 16th centuries and even later, the practice of using acoustical pots as a common feature in church architecture spread throughout Europe'.    The 1302-07 Ecclesiastical Taxation of the Deanery of Taney [Tanehey] valued Lucan Church at £20 per annum with the tithe valued at 40s. (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 5, 239). The vicarage of Lucan belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary's (DU018-020048-) while the rectory of Lucan belonged to the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas (DU018-020051-). In 1268 the 'confirmation of a charter of grant by Wyrreys Peche to the church of St. Catherine near the Salmon Leap, to Brother William, called of Kil its prior his successors, and its canons regular, of the following lands and liberties' included the; 'the church of St. Mary of Liuekan [Lucan], so far as belongs to tlhe patron, for their maintenance and the reception of guests and poor, of the tithe of Wyreys's, bread, beer, meat, and fish; and of the liberties enjoyed by his free tenants in his common of pasture and wood without his preserves, in the manor of Lucan' (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 2, 135, No. 842). This grant was witnessed by 'Henry Archbishop of Dublin, P[eter] Bishop of Ossory, R[alph] Bishop of Kildare, the Abbot of St. Thomas, Dublin, Wiliam Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, Stephen and Godfrey of Hereford, John de Powic, Milo le Bret, Roger parson of Lucan, Hugh de Braunton, constable of Lucan' (ibid.). In 1279, Henry Serle was appointed to the, 'vacant church of Liuekan Lucan] belonging to the K[ing]'s gift by reason of the lands and heirs of Wiliam Pecche, deceased being in the K[ing].s hand. Letters thereupon to the bailiffs of the Archbishop of Dublin' (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 2, 327, no. 1623). In 1539 the Crown granted Patrick Clyncher, Clerk of the Organ of the abbey of St. Thomas, 'of a pension of £5, issuing from lands in the parish of Donaghmore by Grenoke, and from the rectory of Lucan; confirming a grant of the said pension with certain easements, made by the abbot and convent of St. Thomas the Martyr [DU018-020051-]' (Nicholls 1994, 15).   In 1540-1 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the possessions of the Rectory of Lucan were granted to the earl of Kildare and after the Kildare Rebellion these possessions were taken from the earl of Kildare and granted to Thomas Luttrell and Patrick Barnewall. The monastic possession were described as follows; 'a moiety of the tithes gra[i]n, of this r[ectory]. with the r. of Rathmore near Lennagh, Ballaghmone [Kildare], Moynnehennok [Kildare], Strabo [Laois], Moycon [Carlow] and Koulkcoure [Coolkerry, Laois], and a moiety of the tithes of Monehenocke, were leased to Gerald earl of Kildare for 8. li. On his attainder for high treason, these tithes came into the king's hands, and were granted by him to Sir Thomas Lutterell and Patrick Barnewell for rent of 8. li. to the monastery and 20.s. to the king, total, 9. li. The other moiety of the tithes of Lucan is leased by the monastery per ind. p.t.a. [by induenture for a term of years] to Patrick Clyncher for 106.s. 8.d. The advowson of the r[ectory]. of Lucan is the king's' (White 1943, 29-30). In 1543 the Crown granted a 21 year lease to 'Thomas Lutrell, of Lutrelliston, knight; of the site of the hospital of St. John the Baptist [DU018-020062-], without the New gate of Dublin, lands in Dublin and suburbs' (Nicholls 1994, 42) which included lands in Lucan. A condition of the lease stated that '£9 is allowed for the repair of the chancels' (ibid. 43). In 1553-4 the Crown granted a 21 year lease to; 'John Goldsmyth, of Dublin, gent.; of a moiety of the tithe corn of the parish of Lucan and Wespaylston, estimated at ninety pecks a year, parcel of the possessions of the abbey of Thomas-court [DU018-020051-]' (Nicholls 1994, 298). In 1569 the Council of Ireland certified to Queen Elizabeth the granting of the 'manor of Lucan to sir William Sarsfield from the earl of Kildare' (Cunningham 2010, 128). In 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted English liberty to; 'John Ower, vicar of Esker and Lucan' (Nicholls 1994, 464).    The 1615 Royal Visitation of the Diocese of Dublin recorded the following details about the vicarage of Lucan which was then standing in the medieval deanery of Newcastlelyons; 'Thomas Keatinge Vicarius. Thomas Keating a reading minister resident. Ecclesia et cancella bene cum libris [church and chancel good with books]' (Ronan 1941, 27). In 1630, Archbishop Bulkeley's Visitation of Dublin recorded the following details about Lucan Church; 'The rectory is impropriate, worth besides the kings rent, x libri per annum. The church is in good repairacon, the chauncell is ruinous. There are not above five in that parish that comes to church. Thomas Keatinge, clarke, is vicar there, whose meanes there, as he certified, is not above iiii libri per annum, and whose wife is a recusant' (Ronan 1941, 72). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Dublin recorded that at; 'Lucan there is a verry faire house a Chappell some thatch houses and Cabbins and a good Stone bridge [DU017-016----] crossing the river Liffey' (Simington 1945, 290).    The Urban Survey of Dublin (Bradley and King 1988, 254-) recorded the following details about St. Mary's medieval parish church in Lucan; 'This church was in existence by c. 1219 when it granted to the Augustinian priory of St. Catherine founded by Warisius de Pech, to the west of Lucan (Ball 1902-20, iv, 55; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 192). In 1337, after St. Catherine's was united with St Thomas Dublin (DU018-020051-), the advowson passed to this abbey and after the Dissolution it was bought up by Sir William Sarsfield. The church was kept in good repair until the end of the sixteenth century but by 1630 the chancel was ruinous (Ball 1902-20, iv, 56). The church is a simple nave and chancel structure of uncoursed rubble limestone and is missing the north wall of the nave. The west gable is almost complete and had a bellcote above a steeply pitched roof. The west window is ogee-headed twin-light with concave chamfered limestone jambs and segmental headed rear arch. There is a blocked round arched door in the west end of the south wall with a lintelled rear arch. The residential tower is on the north side of the church and is built of roughly coursed limestone. It is rectangular with three floors. The ground floor is barrel vaulted and there is a barrel vaulted annex on the east. A stair turret projects on the north side above first floor level'.  The church was entered originally through a two-centred arched doorway (blocked) at W end of S wall of nave. The nave (L 14m x Wth 5m) is lit by a cusped ogee-headed, double light W window with concave chamfered jambs and remains of a similar window in the S wall. The E end of the church (L 10.8m x Wth 5m) is lit by two late brick-lined, round headed windows placed high in the S wall. The residential tower attached to the N side is roughly square in plan with a stair turret in the NW corner. Built of roughly coursed masonry, it rises to three storeys with a vaulted annexe to the E side (int. dims. Wth 4m x L 6.5m). The tower was originally entered through a two-centred arched doorway. There is an inserted lintelled entrance in the E wall with the decorated head of a double-light ogee headed window built into the wall above it. The ground floor is vaulted on an E-W axis with traces of wicker-work centring. There is a fireplace on the ground floor in the W wall with a round-headed recess in the wall to the S of it. A lintelled entrance opens on the first floor with a small garderobe in the N wall beside it. E of this is a recess for a fireplace. The first floor is lit by large rectangular windows in the W and E walls which are built of roughly dressed limestone. The second floor is also vaulted. The entrance to the corbelled chamber in the NE tower is round-headed. Fireplace in the E wall. The stairs continue to parapet level. A chimney stands in the centre of the N wall (Dix 1897, 36; Ball 1902-20, IV, 43). The castle or residential tower attached to the N side of the church was described in 1897 as follows; 'The castle consists of a square with two projections. The present entrance door is evidently modern, and the only old doorway in this castle is the one between it and the attached chapel, now built up, but the arch of which is apparent, both on the castle side and the chapel side. The stone steps leading to the top of the castle are situate in the small projecting tower, as shown in the diagram. The other projection contains small chambers, according to the different floors. On the ground floor, in the wall opposite the present entrance, are some recesses, rather suggestive of ecclesiastical uses than of anything else. In the small chamber off the ground floor, some of the old wattles still remain embedded in the mortar of the roof. The first floor is intact; it is lighted by several windows, and has also a fireplace. The floor of the second storey has disappeared, but it is covered by what at first sight, when one first steps out on it, appears a flat roof, but which is very probably the floor of another storey, as on one side the battlements rise much higher than is usually the case, and have two openings like windows, but so covered with ivy as not to be easily examined further. On this top floor there is also a small chamber, occurring in each of the other floors below. Nearly the whole of the tower is closely covered with ivy. The internal measurements of the first floor are, 12 ft. 8 in. in width by 19 ft. 2 in. in length. The stair turret rises several feet above the top of the castle, and the idea is rather suggested that it once rose still higher, being reached by some stone steps. The immediate proximity of the chapel or church, which is actually built against the castle on the south side, is remarkable, and the communication between the two by a doorway suggests that this chapel was a private one for the convenience of the owner of the castle. Mr. Reid, Col. Vesey's steward, takes great interest in the antiquities of the demesne and the family. He stated that, in his opinion, there were originally four towers connected by a wall, and added that, at one time during the digging of some ground between the castle and the river, a great many bones were turned up. There are three narrow windows in the west wall and two in the south wall. In 1609, Sir Wm. Sarsfield was seized of the manor, " two castles," &c. It would be of interest to know where the second castle is — perhaps where Mr. Hill's Woollen Mills now are [vide Ordnance Sheet.] In 1667, Sir Theophilus Jones obtained by patent the manor "castle," dec, of Lucan; and in 1700, one John Green claimed a subinterest in the "castle" and great white house at Lucan, but failed to prosecute his claim'.   Lucan Church ruins were described by Ní Mharcaigh (1997, 271-2) as follows; 'The west front resembles that of Esker in that a buttress on each side of a central window continues upward to form a segmental arch over the window, and higher still, to support a bellcote for two bells, although only half of the bellcote survives. A string course decorates the buttresses in two places and is repeated over the window arch. A putlog hole in this wall, to the south of the window, is not visible from inside. It is about 2m from the ground and continues a row of three putlog holes at the same level in the south wall. Three further putlog holes are visible in the gable, between the window and the bellcote. The west window is a two-light one under a round-arch hood on the outside and a segmental, almost flat-headed embrasure on the inside. Each light is trefoiled and ogee-headed, hollow-chamfered and cusped. The central mullion is hollow-chamfered and is grooved with holes for five glazing bars, matched by holes in the sides of the frame. The south wall, 15.9m long, has a vertical break at 7.6m from the west. Whether or not this marks a chancel arch is not certain in the absence of the opposing north wall. The row of three putlog holes already mentioned occurs in this westerly part of the wall, with a fourth below the central one. A gallery may be indicated. A blocked up doorway, 1.2m wide, narrowing slightly to the ground, has a pointed segmental arch on the outside and a lintelled head on the inside. East of the break in the wall is a blocked-up two-light window of which only the upper part remains, under a straight hood moulding. The mullion, sides and sill are missing. Each light had an ogee head with hollow-chamfered and roll mouldings and a pair of spandrels decorated with shallow-cut leaves. There is no trace of the window on the inside of the wall. Whether or not the window is now in its position is therefore conjectural. The north wall of the church is missing except for about 1m adjoining the west wall, within the Italian embassy grounds. Site of the east wall. The east wall of the church has been displaced by the west wall of a house that was built on to the south wall of a medieval tower house. The tower is three storeys high with a stair turret projecting on the north side and an annex projecting on the east. It is not connected to the church at any point and does not appear to have had any function as a belfry. The two-light ogee-headed west window indicates a fifteenth-century date for this church and the head of the north blocked window would fit in with this date'.  Compiled by:  Caimin O'Brien Date of Compilation: 01 December 2025