A brief History of Greystones

Acknowledgements

When you start investigating history you find that every question answered suggests another or perhaps two to be asked. I have greatly enjoyed putting my thoughts together but I am conscious that I have left many gaps and been guilty of a number of guesses and inaccuracies.

I have used and acknowledge my indebtedness to Cannon Scott's The Stones of Bray, Mr Sam French's book "History of the Parish Greystones 1863-1863" written for the centenary of the consecration of St Patrick's Church.

Joyce's Neighbourhood of Dublin, first published in 1912 and just re-issued in a facsimile edition kindly lent me by Reverend Brian McConnell, who also lent me A history of Irish Presbyterianism in Dublin and The South and West of Ireland by C.H. Irwin 1890.

The Reverend Robin Lyle's paper for the Greystones Literary society on "The History of Presbyterianism in Kilpedder and Greystones", kindly let me by Mr Claud McFarland and the 1977 handbook of Greystones Golf Club, kindly supplied by Mr Paddy Lyons, also The History of the Dublin and South Eastern Railway by W.E. Shepherd.

I am very grateful to Father O'Sullivan, P.P., for answering my questions about parish history. For the 20th century, I have also used the conversations and reminiscences of my friends and my own, not necessarily accurate memories.

Thank your for asking me to speak to you. It spurred me to revise this paper, though there is still a great deal of room for improvement. Thank you again, very much.

Noel Kennedy

Greystonesww.com wishes to thank the family of the late Noel Kennedy's who granted permission to publish this Brief History of Greystones. We wish to thank Derek Paine, of Greystones for his kindness and enthusiasm for this project and his graciously access to the fine collection of old photographs and documents he compiled over a period of 40 years. It was acknowledged by a member of the board of Ireland's National Library as one of the finest collections of any small town in Ireland.

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Hawkins-Whitshed & La Touche families

1690. The Battle of the Boyne followed by the Penal laws and the century of Protestant Ascendancy. For over a hundred years there was no pitched battle fought on Irish soil. The characteristic building of this period is not a monastery or a castle but the large unfortified dwelling house with its well-proportioned rows of sashed windows.

There is only one example of this period in Greystones - Killincarrick House in the wood at the top of Whitshed road, two fields away from the ruins of the first Killincarrick house. The family who built and lived in this house were called Hawkins and they owned the townland of Killincarrick and other lands further south. The boundary of the townland runs from the sea at the station, up the lane behind Killincarrig road, along the North edge of the golf course to the Bray-Kilcoole road, through Killincarrig village to Three Trout's Bridge, then down the river to the sea at Cobblers Bulk.

The two town lands of Upper and Lower Rathdown were bought early in the 18th century by the La Touche family. They belonged to that small but important element in the Irish population - the Huguenots - French Protestant refugees from the persecuting Louis XIV, who treated his Protestant subjects with the same intolerance that the then Irish Protestant Parliament was showing against their Roman Catholic fellow countrymen.

The La Touches let Rathdown Castle fall into ruins and built their big house with its French name, Bellevue, high on the south west of Kendlestown hill, their estate extended as far inland as the Glen of the Downs.