Towards a Liffey Valley Strategy Doc. 1 - Kildare.ie

overlooking Liffey; stables and coach house adjoin it. Formerly a
residence; now an office.
Power Station. Sureweld Ltd, 1/2 km. south in Hermitage twd.
a brick building originally erected as a power station with two
100hp steam-driven dynamos to provide electricity at 500 volts for
the trams connecting Lucan to Dublin, and at a lower voltage for
domestic lighting in the locality.
House. Farmleigh, Knockmaroon twd. 1/4 km north. A
three-storey Victorian 'Georgian' mansion built in 1881 for Edward
Guinness, first earl of Iveagh, incorporating an early-nineteenthcentury
house; entrance front with pedimented breakfront
between two three-sided bows; balustraded roof parapet; splendid
interiors; now in state ownership and open to the public.
Bridge. The Silver Bridge, a cast-iron structure on rock-faced
cut-limestone piers, formerly with a wooden pavement, of circa
1886. It was constructed to carry water pipes from the power
station at Mill Lane, Palmerston, to the water tower at Farmleigh;
and also electricity. It was decked with timber to allow it to be
used for family walks from Farmleigh across the river, but strictly
barred to others, who crossed via a downstream ferry that was
active until the mid-twentieth century.
6. Palmerstown
The settlement may take its name from the yew trees that
provided 'palms' on Palm Sunday - in the middle Ages the land
were owned by the Hospitaller Order of Fratres Cruciferi in
Thomas Street, Dublin. The late Nessa O'Connor has provided a
comprehensive and well-informed account of its history and
antiquities in Palmerstown: an ancient place (2003). Palmerston was
an important milling centre in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Despite the expansion of Dublin, a surprising amount of
riverside historic buildings and rural character remains extant. The
historic Mill Lane area is in a very dilapidated and run-down state,
but well capable of rehabilitation.
Historic-settlement features:
Barrow. Ring barrow, probably Bronze Age 1/2 km west, off
Mill Lane.
Bronze Age burial. Off Mill Lane.
Church. St James's Church 1/4 km south-west off Mill Lane.
Possibly a ninth- or tenth-century Early Christian stone church, to
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