Balrothery Tower

The present Church of Ireland church at Balrothery (NIAH Reg. No. 11309002) dedicated to St Peter either stands on the footprint of the medieval parish church of St. Peter or was incorporated into the fabric of the present church. The residential W tower of the medieval parish church of Balrothery (Balruddery) (Baile an Ridire/Town of the Knight) now stands connected to the W end of the C. of I. building by a small low porch. The present church and western tower which is a National Monument (No. 590), stands in the SW quadrant of Balrothery graveyard (DU005-057005-) which contains an inscribed stone (DU005-009002-) and bullaun stone (DU005-009004-). Balrothery Castle (DU005-057006-) stands on glebe lands, c. 30m to the S of the medieval church. A holy well (DU005-057007-) lies in the field 280m to the E of the church. Balrothery Church was listed in the Dublin SMR (1988) as DU005-00901-. The church was listed in the Dublin RMP (1998) as DU005-05703- and is listed on the Historic Environment Viewer as DU005-057003-. A medieval stone head or mouth puller (RMP No. DU005-05704-) is visible beneath the window sill in the external face of the E gable of the C. of I. church.

The medieval double aisled nave and chancel church with western tower (NLI, PD 1976 TX 123) in the parish of Balrothery and barony of the same in north Dublin now Fingal, in the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough, was described by Austin Cooper in the late 18th-century, as a formidable building with a nave which contained arched recesses either side and a smaller chancel. A carved head below the E window of the present church is probably the one described 'as a large projecting head' near the E window (Price 1945, 83-84). The W tower is square in plan and rises three storeys with a belfry stage. A round turret in NW corner contains the stairs. Interior is lit by a double-light ogee-headed window with hood moulding in the W wall, the S terminal of which ends in a carved bearded figure. There is a stone vault over the first floor. A string course and offset mark the base of the belfry stage and there is another string course below double-light pointed windows. There are multi-stepped crenellations on the parapet wall with a 19th-century bellcote on the E side (Leask 1960, 23-24).

In 1810 the church was described as ‘in good repair’ with no ‘Glebe House: two Glebes, one of 19 acres, joining the church, and the other, of 10a 3r. 34p., three quarters of a mile from the church’(Carlisle 1810). Two fairs were held at Balrothery on the 6th of May and the 12th of August for the sale of ‘Cattle and Pedlar’s goods’. According to Lewis (1837, 170-1) the church of Balrothery was ‘anciently annexed to that part of the church of Lusk which in the earlier ages belonged to the archdeaconry of Dublin, and was separated from it about the year 1220 by Archbishop Henry’ (ibid.). He also recorded the local tradition that ‘Jas. II. is said to have slept at the White Hart Inn [DU025-054----] here, before the battle of the Boyne: and the same distinction is claimed by another ancient house in the village, which was formerly an extensive inn’ (ibid.). Samuel Lewis recorded that the ‘church, with the exception of the tower, which is embattled and surmounted at the north-west angle with a circular turret, and at the others with small turrets, was taken down and rebuilt, by aid of a loan of £1000 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1816’ (ibid.). Datestone in the S wall of the church which reads ‘Hoc Templum Decoratum, erat diligentis et studio Th. Brereton generosi …. AD 1722’.

The medieval church and tower was described by the antiquary Austin Cooper in the 18th-century as; ‘an old church of an extraordinary construction and most undoubtedly appears to be an ancient piece of work much mutilated. It formerly consisted of a range of arches or rather arched recesses on each side, which was all included in regular walls that must appear of a great thickness each recess being I imagine about 10 feet [3m] deep. Those on the N side have been all taken away and the wall patched up, but the opposite side remains entire, each recess being a snug seat in the Church. On ascending a flight of stairs leading to the battlements, I could not help expressing some surprise at the apparent thickness of the wall, but what I most admired was the manner of finishing the battlements and for carrying off the water by gutters. The chancel is small and in very indifferent repair. At the W end is a square steeple or belfry with a round tower supporting the NW angle which exactly resembles those supporting the steeple at Lusk, but inferior in size and workmanship. Of all the places I have seen none can challenge this church for a multiplicity of inscriptions. The natives have been very frugal in the expence of tomb stones and instead thereof have used the stones in the walls of the church and by that means there is scarce a stone in the wall not inscribed’ (Price 1942, 83-4; Walsh 1888, 250-1).

Church of Ireland church described by Walsh (1888, 251) as; ‘this curious church was taken down and rebuilt A.D. 1816, when the present plain oblong quadrangular edifice succeeded it, 52 feet [15.8m] long by 28 [8.5m] wide. But this, like its predecessor, is united at the W end to the fine old tower about 20 feet [m] square, which from an eminence commands the high road from Swords to the north. To the N.W. corner is united a round tower, built at the same time, and pierced irregularly by what seem to have been arrow slits. On the sides of the tower are several windows, with well-cut stonework. One window, richly carved on the W side, is in perpendicular Gothic style’.

The W tower (National Monument No. 590) of the church was described by Harold Leask (1960, 23-4) as; ‘a small but sturdy structure with strongly battered walls and has at the SW angle, arising from the ground to above the parapet, a round turret containing the stairs. The parapets are of the Irish, multi-stepped variety, a string-course and offset mark the base of the belfry stage and there is another string course immediately below the pair of pointed windows. The W window, low down, is of two ogee-headed lights below a square label. While the two towers (Balrothery and Lusk) are not datable from any record, a date of c. 1500 for both, based on stylistic grounds, is probably not far wide of the mark’.

In 1999, archaeological monitoring by Donal Murphy under licence No. 99E026 associated with the refurbishment of the former C. of I. church uncovered medieval burials immediately to the S of the SW corner of the church. Sherds of medieval pottery recovered from the burials suggest a 13th-14th-century date (Murphy 2000, 52-3).