Blarney Castle Timeline

Blarney Castle Timeline. . , 1118 , McCarthy Family, The McCarthy Family are granted the Lordship of Desmond and begin to gain power in Munster. By the 15th century the McCarthys had control of the important Barony of Muskerry in West Cork and held lands all along the Lee Valley, including at Blarney where they built Blarney Castle., Right: The stag was a symbol of the McCarthy Clan., 1480 , Blarney Castle, Blarney Castle, a classic Tower House, is built. In 1429 Henry VI had made a grant of £10 available for the construction of small castles to defend the area around Dublin called the ‘Pale’. By this time, English expansion across Ireland had been halted and English possessions were limited to this small area. Everything outside was regarded as savage, giving rise to the expression ‘beyond the pale’. This grant is generally thought to have begun a phase of tower house-style castle construction across Ireland., 1601 , Political Intrigues, Toabhe defeat of the Gaelic lords by the Anglo-Normans at the Battle of Kinsale spelled the beginning of the end of the Nine Years’ War between the Irish nobles and the English forces. Gaelic-held castles like Blarney were soon seized for the English crown. Throughout the war, the lord of Blarney Castle, Cormac Mac Diramada, had attempted to play to both sides, assuring Queen Elizabeth of his loyalty and then supporting the rebellion. His actions allowed the name Blarney to pass into modern usage both as a noun referring to ‘smoothly cajoling talk’, as well as a verb ‘to beguile with flattery’., Right: Queen Elizabeth I. , 1649 , Cromwell, With the execution of Charles I the English Parliament gained power and sent Cromwell to subdue Ireland. His army attack the holdings of the Irish lords, including Blarney Castle, which is finally confiscated in 1652., 1703 , Jefferyes at Blarney, Sir James Jefferyes, from Perthshire in Scotland, arrived in Cork as military Governor of the City in 1698. He had been knighted for his part in a campaign during the Polish-Ottoman War (1672–1676) and was an important player in the political scene in Britain and Ireland. A few years after his arrival, when he decided to set up his home and estate, he bought Blarney from Richard Payne who himself had acquired it from the Hollow Sword Blade Company. A freeman of Cork, Jefferyes was also a Member of Parliament, for Lismore in Waterford, and was envoy to the Court of King Charles XII of Sweden., Right: Portrait of James St. John Jeffereyes., 1760 , Georgian House, A Georgian Gothic Mansion is built at the base of Blarney Castle, possibly to the designs of the architect Christopher Myers., 1766 , Model Village, James St. John began to develop the Model Village of Blarney as a textile manufacturing village. He hoped that the village would become successful so that his income from rents would rise. Within 10 years more than 30 mills had been built., 1792 , La Touche Family, George Jefferyes of Blarney married Anne La Touche. He thus became related by marriage to the Colthursts of Ardrum. The La Touche family had made their vast wealth in banking. The Le Touche Bank was founded in Dublin in 1713 after David Digues La Touche, a French Huguenot, left France following religious persecution. A large number of Huguenot families fled to Ireland at this time, and Huguenot family names such as Bestard, Lavit and Hardy are all still common in Cork. David’s son, David the third, became a Member of the Irish House of Commons and, in 1798, he made a loan of £20,000 to the government, an enormous sum at the time. A few years later, in 1783, he was part of the group that formed the Bank of Ireland., Left: Late eighteenth century oil painting of Mrs. David LaTouche by Hugh Hamilton. , 1797 , Gardens and Rock Close, By the late eighteenth century Blarney Gardens and the Rock Close had become famous examples of ‘natural’ designed landscapes. Large rocky outcrops and features were constructed around the existing rock cliffs and the area was planted with species of hosta and fern in natural looking drifts. In 1797 the Rock Close was described as “A wonderful specimen of what taste and money can accomplish, whole mountains moved and piled together in happy combination.”, 1822 , Woollen Mills, Blarney Woollen Mills are built by the Mahony family, who rented the site from the Jefferys. The early mills were run with power from a small 16 horse-power wheel. The mill grounds would later be used as a depot for indian maize distribution as a response to the Great Famine in the 1840s., 1843 , St Ann’s Hydro, St Ann’s Hydro is opened by Dr Barter, who had worked at the Spa in Mallow. The site at first consisted of a series of vapour baths (like a steam room) but Dr Barter and his business partner David Urquhart, began experimenting with dry heat (like a sauna) and the site at St Ann’s changed to accommodate this. , 1846 , Colthurst Family, The Blarney heiress Louisa Jane Jefferyes marries Sir George Conway Colthurst, already distantly related through the La Touche family connection. The Blarney lands now pass to the Colthurst family who had been living in Ireland since the sixteenth century. George Conway Colthurst was a powerful landowner in his own right, having inherited the Colthurst’s Ardrum estate and baronetcy on the death of his father in 1829. With his marriage to Louisa these two estates became united and amounted to around 30,000 acres, an impressive holding., Right: The Colthurst coat of arms. The motto, Justum et Tenacem, is part of a quote by the Roman poet Horace which means “a just man, firm of purpose, is not easily shaken from his resolve.”, 1850 , Blarney Stone, The myth of the Blarney Stone, which gave those who kissed it the ‘gift of the gab’, becomes popular around this time. It was used as part of the tourist promotion of Blarney Castle., 1874 , Scottish Baronial House, The Colthursts begin to build a house of Irish limestone and Scottish sandstone in a Scottish Baronial style. The design echoes aspects of medieval tower houses and French renaissance period châteaux., Right: Nineteenth century architectural sketch of the Scottish Baronial House at Blarney. , 1887 , Muskerry Tram, The opening of the Cork and Muskerry Light Railway (C&MLR), a narrow gauge railway connecting Cork City with Blarney Village. A portion of the grounds of Blarney Castle were rented from Sir George Colthurst for the construction of the terminus. Travellers on the train could show their ticket to receive reduced admission rates to Blarney Castle and the route became very popular with day trippers. A station was soon built adjacent to the Spa at St Annes, and the train became an important economic and social boon to Blarney., Above: Plan of the station at Blarney as it was in the 1930s. Right: Cork and Muskerry locomotive No. 9 ‘Blarney’. This is a tank engine type locomotive and was built by Hunslett in England.