Balrath Demesne

Balrath Demesne (Irish: Diméin Bhaile na Rátha) is a townland in County Meath, Ireland. It is located 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of the town of Kells. It falls within the electoral division of Burry, in the civil parish of Burry, and the barony of Upper Kells. Its population was 36 in 2011. Civil unrest and tenant evictions occurred in Balrath Demesne following the Great Famine (1845–1852), and an ancient chapel (in ruins) and private cemetery remain on the grounds of the former estate, Balrath Bury.

Geography

Balrath Demesne is the 54th largest townland in County Meath and has an area of approximately 1.66 square miles (1,060 acres). To the west are the townlands of Drumbaragh, Springville or Dandlestown (Danllestown), and Balgeeth. Townlands which border it to the east include Barfordstown, Garistown, Irishtown, Rafeehan and Toberultan. Chapelbride is to the north and Ethelstown and Rodstown to the south.

History

The family of Oliver Plunkett held the region until Gilbert Nicholson arrived in 1669, awarded for serving in Cromwell's Army. The Nicholsons, Anglo-Irish, began acquiring land that began with 500 acres and ended with nearly 8,000 acres in the Kells region. The estate at Balrath Bury was sold out of the family in the 1990s, after more than three centuries of stewardship.

Balrath Bury, a country estate in County Meath, southwest of Kells in the Balrath Demesne townland.

Balrath Bury House is a two-story, pedimented, 18th century structure that remains. The estate features barns, a long Georgian, pedimented stable, a gatehouse, a pool, gardens and out buildings. It was historically known for its limestone and greenstone and as "a large and wooded park, well stocked with deer." The house was said to have been damaged during the Second World War, and "was reduced to the original block." It is now in the American-Colonial style, with main rooms alongside a large central hall, with a bifurcating staircase.

During the Great Hunger, "3,000 acres of the Nicholson estate centered on Balrath demesne was sparsely settled apart from the small townland of Springville, west of the demesne, with its cluster of cabins on the edge of bogland farther to the west."

On the Nicholson estate in 1834, about a decade before the Great Hunger, brothers Thomas and William Carolan lived together on small holdings classified as at Dandlestown (Springville) Townland, which bordered Balrath Demense. Each owned the same amount of land, 7 acres, 3 rods, 13 perches. Thomas paid one pence more than his younger brother, or 7 shillings and 11 pence total, in what was called "composition rent," or tax paid to the Land Commission or Board of Works, which was set up to provide employment to tenantry classified as "poor" (today's 'economically disadvantaged'. The Land Commission "focused" on "the unfair lease agreements that heavily favored landlords and often left tenants with little protection against eviction."

After the Great Hunger, "numbers left Balrath and emigrated to America and the most of the Nicholson’s estate was put under grass. The change from tillage to pasturage took place in the years that elapsed from 1847 to 1862. After. Mr. Nicholson helped numbers to emigrate. When they left, their houses were demolished, except houses in which old people lived who were unable to travel."

In the years following, just prior to the Land War, civil unrest occurred on the Nicholson estates: the family's holdings included lands in the following townlands: Drumbaragh, Distanrath [or Destinrath], Lightown [Leightown], Scurloughstown and Springville. The Royal Irish Constabulary occupied a stable-yard at Balrath Bury in 1868 to protect the family.

"Balrath, County Meath, the seat of Mr. Nicholson." The Illustrated London News, from April 25, 1870

Between 1869 and 1871, there were two assassination attempts on family members: John Armytage Nicholson in 1869 and his son Christopher the following year when a coachman was killed. Numerous tenants were evicted across the region afterward, including evictions at Light Town (Leightown) on July 14, 1871, and Drumbaragh on July 23, 1872. A few months later, the landlord John A. Nicholson, age 74, died.

The British Red Cross Society opened an auxiliary hospital at Balrath Bury in May 1917 and remained open until February 1919, treating some 347 patients. In 1939, German refugees were housed at Balrath Bury.

Much of the estate was eventually handled by the Irish Land Commission, which oversaw the dissolution of large land estates and enabled tenants to purchase the subdivided holdings.

In the 1960s, John Nicholson bred deer on the estate. A trophy in his honor is presented by the Irish Deer Society each year for service in the "welfare, conservation and protection of deer in Ireland."

Burry parish

'Burry,' a parish. Chapel-of-ease to Kells and graveyard at Balrath Demesne townland

Balrath Demesne is within the larger parish of Burry. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837:

BURRY, a parish, in the barony of UPPER-KELLS, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 1¾ mile (S.W.) from Kells; containing 1027 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the road from Mullingar to Kells and Drogheda, and comprises 3339 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act. The land, which is of great fertility, is almost equally divided between tillage and pasture, and the system of agriculture is in a highly improved state. There is a considerable tract of bog, which partly supplies the town of Kells with turf; and there are some quarries of limestone and greenstone.  Balrath, the seat of C. A. Nicholson, Esq., is a handsome residence, pleasantly situated in an extensive and well-wooded demesne, with a park well stocked with deer, and in which are some remains of the old church, with a burial-ground attached. The other seats are Springville, the residence of P. O'Reilly, Esq.; and Berford, of J. Dyas, Esq. It is a rectory, in the diocese of Meath, and is part of the union of Kells and corps of the archdeaconry of Meath: the tithes amount to £150 The glebe comprises 2r. 19p., valued at £1. 10. per annum. In the R. C. divisions, also, it forms part of the union or district of Kells. There are two daily pay schools, one at Drumbarrow and the other at Scurlogstown, in which are about 100 boys and 60 girls.

Bury chapel and cemetery

Bury chapel in March 2020 (ruin dating to pre-1622) and cemetery in the Balrath Demesne townland

Bury was a Catholic chapel-at -ease to Kells, on a slight rise on a level landscape, as noted in 1622 (Ussher's visitation). "According to Dopping's Visitation (1682-5) the parish church of Bury, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, had been a ruin since 1641 and was not enclosed (Ellison 1973, 9). The church is depicted as a roofed structure on the 1836 ed. of the OS 6-inch map, although described as mere remains (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 234)."

Members of the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church in Ireland are buried here. The cemetery predates 1722, the burial year on one of the many headstones that were catalogued in 2012 by the Kells Archeological and History Society.

The remains of Maureen O'Hara's grandfather, a blacksmith and farrier named Batholomew Fitzsimons, are here. She made a ceremonial visit in 2012 at age 92.

See also

• List of townlands of County Meath