There are very few of the once great abbeys of Ireland of which so little
is generally known to the public as of Boyle Abbey. One reason of this may
be the remoteness of its situation, and its invisibleness from the town of
Boyle. It is not on the track of tourists, and is in a rather
uninteresting part of the country in a scenic point of view. Besides, the
Abbey is not in the town of Boyle, but over quarter of a mile from it, on
a road not so much frequented as some others in the locality. It is a
wonder that more is not known about this noble ruin. It may not be so
interesting in its architecture as Holycross, or so striking in its
situation as Cashel, but it is, nevertheless, one of the finest
ecclesiastical ruins in Ireland.
[Illustration: BOYLE ABBEY.]
If the country round Boyle Abbey cannot be said to be very interesting or
beautiful, the place where the ruins stand is charming. They rise from the
banks of the Boyle river, the first large tributary of the Shannon. The
river rushes under the very walls of the monastery with a rapid current,
and at its highest flood it is generally as clear as crystal, for it
rises in, or at least flows through, Loch Ui Gara, which is only a few
miles from Boyle, and its waters are filtered in that lake before they
reach Boyle. And here it may not be out of place to say that the generally
clear waters of most of the rivers of Ireland add greatly to the beauty of
its scenery. Scotch rivers are also generally clear, and the reason they
are clear is the reason why the Irish rivers are clear, and that is,
because they are filtered in the lakes through which they generally flow.
A limpid river is one of the most beautiful things in nature, but a river
of dirty water would not be beautiful if it flowed through the Garden of
Eden. Almost all rivers that are not filtered by passing through lakes are
sure to be dirty. For this reason the St Lawrence may be said to be the
only one of the great American rivers the waters of which are clear. To
know what an abomination a river of dirty water is, one should see the
Missouri. The river that rushes past the ruins of Boyle Monastery is not
only clear but limpid. Its pure, rushing waters are one of the principal
attractions in the vicinity of the ruins.
The ruins of Boyle Abbey are very fine. The monastery was a large one, one
of the largest in Ireland, and was surrounded on almost every side with
extensive gardens. The walls of many of those gardens still remain, and
seem as sound as they were when first built. The ruins of the Monastery,
and the ruins of its adjoining buildings, are covered with the most
luxuriant growth of ivy to be seen on any ruins in Ireland. The thickness
of its stems, and the size and deep green of its leaves, are remarkable.
This extraordinary growth of ivy must eventually tumble down the walls. It
may preserve them for a time, but will destroy them in the long run. But
without its ivy and its limpid river, the ruined Monastery of Boyle, grand
and interesting as it is, would lose a great deal of its attractions.
The ruins of the great church of Boyle, like the ruins of Cashel, and like
the historic hill of Tara, have been spoiled by the erection of modern
buildings near them. Some parson has erected here a new, intensely vulgar
gimcrack house that almost touches the hoary ruins, it is so close to
them. It entirely spoils their effect, and would disgust any one with any
veneration for the past. In no other country, perhaps, in the world has
the want of respect for the antique been more manifest among the masses
than in Ireland. In no other country have so many monuments of the past
been more wantonly destroyed, more defaced, and less respected. If it had
not been for the care exercised by the Board of Works, during the last
thirty years, most of the ruins of Ireland would now be either entirely
uprooted, or so marred, like the Rock of Cashel, or the Monastery of
Boyle, by the erection of new buildings in their vicinity, that they would
have little attraction for any one in whose soul there remained the
slightest reverence for the past. There are, however, unmistakable signs
that more patriotic and enlightened ideas about their country, and
everything relating to it, are rapidly gaining ground among all classes of
the Irish people, but especially among the more educated. Irish history,
Irish antiquities, and even the Irish language get more of the attention
of the upper and middle classes in Ireland now than they ever got before.
It seems almost a certainty that the ancient monument-defacing epoch has
passed, or is rapidly passing away from a country to which it has been a
disgrace so long. It is not enough that the Board of Works should continue
to do the good work it has been doing for the last quarter of a century in
the preservation of our ruins, it should prevent such outrageous bad taste
as the erection of new buildings in the very centre of time-honoured
monuments like those on the Rock of Cashel and on the Boyle river.
The ancient name of Boyle was _Ath da laarg_, that is, the "ford of two
forks." It is not easy to understand why such a curious name should have
been given to it, for the river at Boyle, even in time of floods, is
fordable, and has usually not over six or eight inches of water in it. It
has, however, been proved that the rivers of Ireland, and probably of most
other countries, had much more water in them in ancient times than at
present. The other name for Boyle was _Buil_, whence Boyle. The word
_Buil_ is entirely obsolete. It is supposed to mean handsome or beautiful.
The Monastery, of which the ruins exist, was founded in 1161 by Maurice
O'Duffy, a noted ecclesiastic of the period, but it is known that a
smaller and more ancient monastery occupied the site on which the larger
one was built at the date mentioned. Boyle Abbey was an offshoot of the
great Abbey of Mellifont in the County Louth, that had been founded some
twenty years before the Abbey of Boyle. Both abbeys belonged to the
Cistercian order; and it would appear that so many monks flocked to
Mellifont that accommodation could not be made for them all there, so the
Abbey of Boyle was erected for them. The "Annals of Boyle," known also as
the "Annals of Loch Ce, or Key," say that the Church of Boyle was
consecrated in 1220; but that the church was built in 1161 there seems no
reason to doubt. The Four Masters mention it under the year 1174. Their
last mention of it is under the year 1602, and it must have been abandoned
very soon after. It was granted to Sir John King in 1603, when it must
have ceased to be a monastery.
No one should visit Boyle and its grand ruins and not see the two very
beautiful lakes that are near it, Loch Key and Loch Arrow. Loch Key is not
over a mile from the town, and Loch Arrow not more than three. The very
fine domain of Rockingham may be said to be almost surrounded by Loch
Key. It was on an island in this lake that the McDermotts, chieftains of
Moylurg, had a stronghold. The island has a castle on it at present, but,
seen from the shore, both island and castle appear very small. The
fortress the McDermotts had on the island must have been a sort of
_cranniog_, or wooden castle, like so many that have been discovered both
in Ireland and Scotland in the tracks of dried-up lakes. Those _cranniogs_
were sometimes built entirely on piles, and sometimes on islands, with
extensions on piles if the water was not too deep. This last must have
been the kind of fortress the McDermotts had on Loch Key, for it must have
been much larger than the present island, and must have been large enough
to give space to a multitude of people to assemble on it. We read in the
annals of Loch Key of the following awful catastrophe that happened on it
in 1184: "The Rock of Loch Key was burned by lightning--_i.e._, the very
magnificent, kingly residence of the Muintir Maolruanaigh (the McDermotts)
where neither goods nor people of all that were there found protection;
where six or seven score of distinguished persons were destroyed, along
with fifteen men of the race of kings and chieftains, with the wife of
McDermott ... and every one of them who was not burned was drowned in
that tumultuous consternation in the entrance of the place; so that there
escaped not alive therefrom but Connor McDermott with a very small number
of the multitude of his people." The same catastrophe is mentioned by the
Four Masters, but under the year 1187. This account of the burning of the
castle, or, as the annalist calls it, a residence, shows that it was a
wooden structure, for it would hardly have been possible to burn a
building of stone so quickly that the people in it would not have had time
to escape, even if it were on an island.
Loch Arrow is the least known of all the beautiful lakes of Ireland, and
beautiful it is in very nearly the highest style of beauty. There are no
mountains round Loch Arrow, and none to be seen from its waters; but its
numberless attractions in the way of wooded islands, bold promontories,
and swelling shores render it one of the lovely lakes of Ireland; and yet,
few, except those living in its immediate vicinity, know anything about
it, or have ever heard of it. The land near it seems to be, for the most
part, in the hands of small farmers; and neater or more attractive peasant
homesteads cannot be found in any part of Ireland than on the banks of
Loch Arrow. It is not more than four miles from Boyle; and small as it is,
not more than five miles long, and from two to two and a half miles broad,
it is a gem of a lake that seems to be forgotten by the world.