Start your walking tour of the charming town of Rathangan at the northern edge of the village, behind the Garda station, a building that once served as a modest two-room national school for boys from 1910, educating generations including the tour’s narrator, where the majestic Rath of Amon stands as Rathangan’s most enduring historical monument, a ringfort that testifies to over a millennium of continuous settlement and lends the town its name from the Irish ‘Ráth Iomgháin’, though the identity of Amon remains shrouded in mystery.
This impressive earthen mound, described in 1837 by John O’Donovan as approximately 180 feet in diameter and rising 42 feet slantwise with trees adorning its summit, some of which were felled for firewood during the Second World War, has roots potentially tracing back to 579-652 AD, based on an early Irish poem evoking its successive occupants like Bruidge (Breas), Cathal (Cobha), Árd (Aedh), Ailill, Conaing (Caillen), Cuiline (Cuilenn), and Maeldúin (Maeldubh), high-status figures whose legacy underscores the site’s prestige, while others posit an even older origin; today, it overlooks the surrounding fields where children once played in nearby hollows rather than venturing into the fort itself.
From here, proceed towards the village centre by entering the Church of Ireland gate adjacent to the Garda station, strolling up the long, tree-lined avenue to the well-maintained church, a structure largely from the 18th and 19th centuries with rectors and vicars recorded since 1476, including a loan sought to complete the edifice begun in 1770, marked by a copper alms dish gifted by Daniel Lennon of Dublin, though it was rebuilt in 1828 by Reverend William Bourne, as inscribed over the main door, suggesting a pre-Reformation church on the site evidenced by an early church stone nearby.
The adjoining graveyard, shared historically by Church of Ireland and Catholic residents, holds poignant tales such as the tomb of James Spencer, a casualty of 1798 during the rebellion with his monument erected by his daughter Esther, wife of the Honourable and Reverend John Pomeroy, alongside burials of figures like John and Michael Doorley from Lullymore who played roles in 1798, and Thomas Byrne executed during the Civil War.
Reflect on these stories before retracing your steps down the avenue to a small green opposite, featuring an attractive flowerbed and monument dedicated by the Tidy Towns committee to novelist Bithia Mary Croker, a prolific author of over 50 novels and ghost stories who married military man John Croker in 1871, spent time in India crafting works like her 1918 novel ‘Bridges’ with Rathangan references, and passed away in 1920, deserving remembrance in her hometown.
Continue down the Main Street, flanked by grand Georgian houses of high valuation in Griffith’s survey, once dubbed the ‘top of the town’ or ‘mine’s end’, passing a plaque on Leinster Street dated 1792, a nod to the Duke of Leinster’s estates that encompassed Rathangan, before reaching the triangular square, formerly known as Paradise Square where families like the narrator’s mother Nancy and grandfather James Reardon resided in the 1940s with his shop.
Veer onto the scenic walkway along the banks of the Slate River, a peaceful riverside path that enhances the town’s allure with its natural beauty and leads directly to the monument honouring Maura Laverty, the multi-talented writer born in Rathangan to a dressmaker mother and reluctant shopkeeper father, renowned for five novels including the controversial ‘Never No More’ set in the locale, three plays, the TV series ‘Tolka Row’, and her status as the ‘mummy of Irish cookery’ with classics like ‘Full and Plenty’; her favourite saying, ‘cooking is the poetry of housework’, befits this versatile figure who excelled as a radio presenter, playwright, and novelist until her death in 1966 at age 59.
Retrace to the square and turn left towards Kildare, soon encountering the monument to poet William A. Byrne, born in Rathangan in 1872 to teacher Joseph Byrne and Marcella, educated locally and briefly at Mungret College where he penned an ode for its centenary in 1895 before departing seminary life; his sole poetry collection ‘A Light on the Broom’ includes the evocative ‘The Purple Heather’, surrounded fittingly by heather on the monument, lamenting the bog’s transformation with lines like ‘The purple heather is the cloak God gave the bog on brown/ But man has made a pall of smoke/ To hide the distant town‘, and ‘The Village’ evoking Rathangan’s streamside charm.
Press on to the picturesque Grand Canal, a lifeline that spurred the town’s development in the 1790s with much of Main Street built post its arrival in the 1770s, bypassing railways that reached nearby towns like Kildare, Monasterevin, Newbridge, and Athy; admire Rathangan Bridge, often called Balloon Bridge for the moon’s circular reflection beneath it, near a once-thriving grain store listed in Slater’s 1881 directory as handled by Murphy Brothers, agents for the Grand Canal Company, later owned by D.E. Williams of Tullamore Dew fame, and site of a military barracks during the 1798 battle where Rathangan saw significant action in the rebellion.
Stroll a few hundred metres along the canal bank towards Monasterevin to Spencer Bridge, named after the ill-fated James Spencer and dated 1784 as per a 1787 map by John Kelly, boasting an impressive double lock and a charming lock-keeper’s house; this stretch forms part of the Barrow Line connecting Dublin to Athy, with early passenger boats from 1780 charging seven shillings and sixpence for a first-class journey from Dublin to Rathangan in 1815, limited to 45 passengers with meals available but no spirits in second class, and timetables showing arrivals around 1pm from Sallins.
Conclude your circuit, perhaps extending to nearby Lullymore Heritage and Discovery Park just outside town for a deeper dive into 9,000 years of bogland history, rebellions, and famine exhibits amidst 60 acres of trails, playgrounds, and fairy trails, encapsulating Rathangan’s rich tapestry from ancient forts to literary luminaries, as echoed in Byrne’s poignant words: ‘And one by one the lights go out, And one by one we drop away, And other lights are on the hills, And other singers have their day’.
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