archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

John McGahern spent his youth and he used the police station here as the setting for his first novel The
Barracks (1963). In the novel he depicts the atmosphere of the village during the 1940s which traces the
terminal illness and death of the sergeant’s wife and her loneliness even though she is surrounded by
people. There are four structures/buildings that are listed for protection in the environs of Cootehall as
listed in the county development plan – St. Michael’s Roman Catholic church (built 1846) and Oakport
House (built c. 1820) and entrance arch located in nearby Oakport demesne and the Cylindrical House
and Tower..
Knockvicar
Knockvicar is a small village located east of Lough Key along the banks of the river Boyle. The Boyle river
navigation winds up the narrowing river passing, Tara Marina to Knockvicar Bridge, which replaced an
older eight-arch structure (Delaney 2000). The present bridge is a triple arch stone bridge dating to c.
1845 and has a passageway leading down river to a landing quay. Clarendon Lock is located a short
distance upstream of Knockvicar bridge before the river opens out at the lock and weir. There are three
protected structures within the environs of Knockvicar, including the bridge, Riversdale house and
Errinonagh gate lodge. Riversdale House is a late Georgian structure built c. 1840 with associated
outbuildings (derelict) that is presently used as a guest house, while Errionagh Lodge is an unusual
octagonal-plan gatelodge dating to c. 1800 that has recently been renovated.
Boyle
Boyle was established as a corporate, market and post-town by the time of Lewis’s writings in 1837.
However, the place had its origins in the foundation of a religious establishment, in 1161, in the form of a
Cistercian Abbey. The town is situated on the river Boyle, which flows from Lough Gara into Lough Key,
and is divided into two parts by the river, towards which the ground slopes on both sides. The oldest part
of the town extends along the north side, while a later portion stretches in a direction parallel with the
north-west bank of the river, above the bridge. A nineteenth century addition is located on the south side
of the bridge, ascending the hill and forming a crescent on its summit.
Lewis (1837) notes that ‘…the old bridge…which connected these parts of the town…has been taken
down and replaced by a handsome structure of three arches, 100 feet long and 42 feet wide; the span of
the principal arch is 30 feet…’. A single arch bridge was built across the river in 1817, while another small
five-arched example was also erected.
The borough was incorporated by charter during the reign of James I (1613), and a market and fairs were
granted to John Bingley and John King in 1604, prior to which date there is little reference to the town.
The town was the commercial centre of the extensive agricultural district which surrounded it.
The ruins of Boyle Abbey retain the classic lay-out of a Cistercian monastery. The church took many
years to build and displays a changing architectural style: Romanesque evolving into Gothic, spanning
approximately the first sixty years of the monastery’s existence (Delaney 2000). Fragments of the
domestic buildings surround what was once the cloister. The abbey was one of the largest and wealthiest
in Connaught and it took a leading role on the Irish side when a split developed in the Cistercian order in
Ireland in the early thirteenth century by opposing the growing determination of the Anglo-Normans, and
it was plundered by the latter in 1235 (ibid.). The abbey was finally dissolved and the buildings were
subsequently used in 1659 by Cromwellian soldiers.
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