Towards a Liffey Valley Strategy Doc. 1 - Kildare.ie
Towards a Liffey Valley Strategy Doc. 1 - Kildare.ie
Towards a Liffey Valley Strategy Doc. 1 - Kildare.ie
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including double window in east gable; stairwell with stone steps<br />
probably leading to attic pr<strong>ie</strong>st's chamber; battlemented parapet;<br />
site includes a granite cross base, a plain granite cross slab, and a<br />
fragment of a seventeenth-century FitzEustace commemorative<br />
cross(?), with the inscription 'Eustace, Lord Portlester 1462'.<br />
Architectural details suggest a mid-fifteenth-century date for the<br />
church.<br />
Med<strong>ie</strong>val (?) parish church. 1/4 km south in Gaganstown twd.<br />
Not seen.<br />
Friary. 'New Abbey' Observantine Franciscan friary 1/4 km<br />
south at New Abbey graveyard. Founded 1486; suppressed 1539;<br />
outline of church with nave, choir and transepts suggested by<br />
reconstruction of lower wall courses; late fifteenth-century mensa<br />
tomb-top (originally recumbent, but now set upright under<br />
protective canopy by <strong>Kildare</strong> County Council) with effig<strong>ie</strong>s of the<br />
founder, Roland FitzEustace of Harristown Baron Portlester and<br />
lord deputy of Ireland, and his wife, Margaret d'Artois (who also<br />
have a tomb in St Audeon's Dublin); a panel of weepers, which<br />
includes St Catherine, Madonna, a friar, a coat of arms, passion<br />
symbols and another unidentif<strong>ie</strong>d figure, is also on the site. In 1582<br />
the property was granted to the poet Edmund Spencer, who may<br />
have written much of The faer<strong>ie</strong> queene here.<br />
Stone cross. 3/4 km north-west in Coghlanstown twd. Small<br />
granite roadside cross. Date unknown.<br />
Harristown Demsene. Harristown was a parliamentary borough<br />
until 1800. The demesne was developed by John La Touche in the<br />
late eighteenth century and is currently occup<strong>ie</strong>d by Mr Hubert<br />
Beaumont. Harristown House. 1/4 km north-west is an ashlarfaced<br />
late-Georgian 9-bay house with Ionic portico; built for John<br />
La Touche; originally of 3 storeys over basement, but rebuilt in 2<br />
storeys after fire circa 1900; set in splendid parkland, with many<br />
mature trees, extending both sides of the <strong>Liffey</strong> with handsome<br />
entrance gates at Harristown (1 km north) and Brannockstown<br />
(1/2 km south) linked by estate through-road. The estate includes<br />
a handsome 7-arch bridge, 90 m long, which carr<strong>ie</strong>s estate<br />
through-road across <strong>Liffey</strong>. Apparently this was originally a public<br />
bridge, but on its incorporation into the demesne, public needs<br />
were met by the erection of a new bridge near Brannockstown.<br />
Present bridge has eighteenth-century appearance. There is also a<br />
Unitarian graveyard 1/4 km south. House open to the public on<br />
certain days.<br />
Bridge. Brannockstown Bridge; 5-arch structure erected to<br />
supersede Harristown Bridge on its incorporation into Harristown<br />
OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS ERM IRELAND<br />
Page 69
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