CARLINGFORD, Co Louth, situated on a fjord-like sea inlet on the beautiful Carlingford Lough is a fine place to be on a summer’s day. In fact, it is a good place to be at any time of the year. This little town, mid-way between Dublin and Belfast is located on the east of the magnificent Cooley Peninsula setting of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. It was once a formidable Anglo-Norman settlement. It was also a major fishing area.
When writing his report of his diocese in 1670, Oliver Plunkett, then archbishop of Armagh, noted that Carlingford was: “Celebrated for its fine seaport and herring fisheries”, while in 1791, Charles Bowden enthused that Carlingford was “remarkable for the finest flavoured oysters in the
world.”
Earlier, at the beginning of the 16th century, about 600 English ships fished regularly off Carlingford, and by 1550 herrings taken from these quiet waters were brought as far away as St Ives in Cornwall.
The town has had a mixed history, its fortunes have ebbed and flowed, declined and currently are thriving thanks to one reason, its remarkable – and well preserved – medieval heritage. Carlingford may be small, but it possesses presence and atmosphere, and a bewildering range of fine eateries.
To the west of the town a concentration of six ring forts is a good indication of early medieval settlement and true to the pattern of ports along the east coast, the Vikings arrived in the area during the 9th century, exactly where they settled is not certain, although the name Carlingford is of Viking origin.
Yet Carlingford is essentially an Anglo-Norman town. It passed into the ownership of Hugh De Lacy on his marriage in 1195. But within a few years it would all change; the English crown became involved. Hugh De Lacy had begun to build a castle in about 1200, the ruins of which are there to be seen, in a dramatic setting over the harbour.
King John seized it in 1210, although a decade would pass before royal control was fully consolidated. The structure was enlarged and a cross wall was added. It is an important castle, not only strategically, it was to symbolise royal authority in a territory contested by Anglo-Norman colony to the south and the native Irish.
By the end of the 13th century Carlingford featured in the customs returns as one of the east Ulster ports. Walking through the town today and passing the remaining traces of its walls, the range of medieval buildings such as the 15th-century tholsel and the Mint, an urban tower-house in which no money was made (it most likely belonged to a merchant who added the decorated window panels), it is impossible not to think of its past.
A railway once operated here. Having been discussed for years, finally in 1877, it became a reality. The previous year a passage was cut through the very rock upon which King John’s Castle stands, allowing the rail track through it. But the railway was closed in 1951 during a time of many losses. There have been good times and bad; but there is no sense of nostalgia. Carlingford does not appear haunted by its past, yet, its heritage has proved a lifeline. It is a market town and now, increasingly, a terrific destination for adventure sports.
But it was not the lure of kayaking in a harbour well-documented in Richard Bartlett’s 1602 map of the Moyry Pass and Cooley Peninsula that drew a group of academics and other interested persons to the streets of Carlingford recently.
Instead it was the launch of the Royal Irish Academy’s latest fascicle in the multi-disciplinary Irish Historic Towns Atlas series. This is the 23rd study in a series which is now celebrating its 25th year. It all began in 1986 when the geographer Anngret Simms suggested to the Royal Irish Academy that Ireland join in on an exciting European project that had been initiated in 1955 by the International Commission for the History of Towns as a way of helping minds and memories heal in the post-war period.
In 1978 Prof Heinz Stoob gave a lecture in Dublin on the mapping of German towns. Anngret Simms believes in the power of maps, she also believes in team efforts. The first town mapped was historic Kildare in 1986 by geographer John Andrews. Since then, the archaeology, geography, history and above settlement patterns of Ireland have emerged through individual studies on Carrickfergus, Bandon, Kells, Mullingar, Athlone, Maynooth, Downpatrick, Bray, Kilkenny, Fethard, Trim, the first two instalments of Dublin up to 1756, Belfast up to 1900, Derry, Dundalk, Armagh, Tuam, Limerick and Longford. To date, close to 500 European towns and cities have been mapped under this project.
The Carlingford fascicle, in the now familiar format of an outstanding essay tracing the origins of the town from the earliest times to the present day, is accompanied by period maps and photographs, as well as up-to-date graphs and aerial shots. But there was an additional dimension: its author, Harold O'Sullivan, who had also written the atlas on Dundalk, published in 2006, died during his research of the Carlingford study. His material was collated by Raymond Gillespie, one of the series editors and the co-author, with Stephen A Royle, of Belfast, part 1, to 1840. Dr Gillespie led a party of academics and students on a lively tour, all the while acknowledging the absent author, Harold O'Sullivan.
Later the people of Carlingford gathered at the Heritage Centre and the new president of the Royal Irish Academy, Prof Luke Drury, thanked Lough County Council, while I had the privilege of launching the fascicle. Carlingford, in a pivotal position between North and South, has a sense of all the cultures. The Royal Irish Academy has not only supported the concept of multi-disciplinary studies, it has endorsed this approach in a practical way. Maps do tell the story faster than words and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas is chronicling many stories: encompassing all aspects of Irish social history, historical geography and settlement. Each of the fascicles leads the way from the origins of the towns and cities to the present. On both local and national levels, these are rich journeys, well worth taking.
Irish Towns Historic Atlas No 23, Carlingford,published by the Royal Irish Academy