ST COLUMBANUS ROAD – IS IT IN DUNDRUM OR MILLTOWN?
This is new to me. I got off the tram at Windy Arbour and walked along St Columbanus Road which I never visited before and then I came across what could be described as a linear park on the banks of a small stream and I could not decide if I was in Dundrum, Clonskeagh or Milltown. Why Clonskeagh? Because Our Lady’s National School had a sign showing its address as Clonskeagh.
I asked two people who I met on my journey and one said Dundrum and the other said Milltown [the property for sale advertisements appear to agree]. Later a friend told me that legally it is in Rathmines Great which came as a surprise but according to my friend Rathmines Great is in the Electoral Division of Dundrum, in Civil Parish of Taney, in the Barony of Rathdown, in the County of Dublin.
THE RIVER DODDER AT MILLTOWN NEAR THE PACKHORSE BRIDGE
The old bridge in my photographs is Packhorse Bridge which is a 17th century structure now protected under the Dublin Development plan 2011 – 2017.
For many years I could not find the old bridge near the Nine Arches in Milltown and then about two years ago a very old gentleman who was standing on the bridge told me that it was the oldest bridge in Dublin but he could not remember its name however it had something to do with horses. He claimed that Oliver Cromwell visited the area and crossed the Dodder via the old narrow bridge.
When I returned home I was able to establish that it is known as Packhorse Bridge but little information relating to the actual bridge is available online.
A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so as not to interfere with the panniers borne by the horses. Multi-arched examples sometimes have triangular cutwaters that are extended upward to form pedestrian refuges.
Packhorse bridges were often built on the trade routes (often called packhorse routes) that formed major transport arteries across Europe and Great Britain until the coming of the turnpike roads and canals in the 18th century. Before the road-building efforts of Napoleon, all crossings of the Alps were on packhorse trails. Travellers’ carriages were dismantled and transported over the mountain passes by ponies and mule trains.
THE NINE ARCHES BRIDGE AND OLD CHIMNEY IN MILLTOWN
Milltown is marked by a spectacular 19th-century railway bridge across the river, which was part of the Harcourt Street railway line which ran from Harcourt Street to Bray. On 30 June 2004, the bridge was re-opened for the Luas light rail system which runs from St. Stephen’s Green to Bride’s Glen. This bridge, and sometimes the area immediately surrounding it, became known informally as the ‘Nine Arches’. Milltown railway station opened on 1 May 1860 and finally closed on 31 December 1958.
The Shanagarry Chimney in Milltown is the last remaining structure of an Old Dublin Laundry. It stands, 28.6m tall beside the Nine Arches viaduct. It is now a communications mast generating a revenue €13,880 a year and it was sold at auction in 2018 for €136,000.
Milltown is a suburb on the south-side of Dublin, Ireland. The townland got its name well before the 18th or 19th century. Both Milltown and Clonskeagh were “Liberties” of Dublin, following the English invasion and colonisation in 1290. Milltown was the site of several working mills on the River Dodder and is also the location of the meeting of the River Slang with the Dodder.
PACKHORSE BRIDGE ACROSS THE DODDER A1650s STONE FOOTBRIDGE IN MILLTOWN
It has taken me more than a year to find the name of this bridge a few months ago a local told me that it was the oldest bridge in Dublin but he could not remember its name but it had something to do with horses.
A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so as not to interfere with the panniers borne by the horses. Multi-arched examples sometimes have triangular cutwaters that are extended upward to form pedestrian refuges.
Packhorse bridges were often built on the trade routes (often called packhorse routes) that formed major transport arteries across Europe and Great Britain until the coming of the turnpike roads and canals in the 18th century. Before the road-building efforts of Napoleon, all crossings of the Alps were on packhorse trails. Travellers’ carriages were dismantled and transported over the mountain passes by ponies and mule trains.
FOLLOWING THE DODDER RIVER FROM MILLTOWN TO CLONSKEAGH
The Dodder lay well beyond the original city of Dublin but began to have an important impact in the 13th century, when water from its course was diverted to boost the small Poddle River, which in turn did supply fresh water to parts of Dublin.
Over centuries, the Dodder and its tributaries drove many mills, crucial to Dublin’s industrial base, but all are now disused. In many cases, all traces have been erased but there are some indications, such as of millraces.
The de Meones family, who gave their name to the nearby suburb of Rathmines, owned a mill in that area as early as the mid-fourteenth century.In the sixteenth century much of the surrounding lands belonged to the Talbot family, ancestors of the Talbots of Mount Talbot. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Domvile family, who owned much of Templeogue, effectively controlled access to much of the river, which passed through their estates. At that time the Dodder was the main source of Dublin’s drinking water, and whether fairly or unfairly, the Domviles were accused of using their control of the Dublin water supply to further their own selfish ends, by threatening to divert its course if their wishes were not met. In fact the legal right to control the course of the river was vested in the Mayor and Corporation of Dublin; this was confirmed by a legal ruling as early as 1527.
The Dodder rises on the northern slopes of Kippure in the Wicklow Mountains and is formed from several streams. The headwaters flow from Kippure Ridge, and include, and are often mapped solely as, Tromanallison (Allison’s Brook), which is then joined by Mareen’s Brook, including the Cataract of the Brown Rowan, and then the combined flow meeting the Cot and Slade Brooks.
In the river’s valley at Glenasmole are the two Bohernabreena Reservoirs, a major part of the Dublin water supply system.
The Dodder is 26 kilometres (16 mi) long. It passes the Dublin suburbs of Tallaght and then Firhouse, travels by Templeogue, passes Rathfarnham, Rathgar, Milltown, Clonskeagh, and Donnybrook, and goes through Ballsbridge and past Sandymount, before entering the Liffey near Ringsend, along with the Grand Canal, at Grand Canal Dock.
There is a weir just above the bridge at Ballsbridge and the river becomes tidal roughly where the bridge at Lansdowne Road crosses it. The Dodder and the River Tolka are Dublin’s second-largest rivers, after the Liffey.
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