Ireland/Irish > Black's guide to Dublin and the Wicklow mountains. With plan of Dublin

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EXCURSIONS FROM DUBLIN
The drive between Dublin and Enniskerry, on a fine sum
mer’s morning, is sure to be enjoyed by the tourist. The
road passes through several villages or hamlets, built and kept
in a style quite national. In the outskirts of Dublin, we pass
through RANELAGHandCuLLENSWOOD, two pleasant suburban
villages. In Cullenswood a dreadful massacre of 500 English
citizens of Dublin took place on Easter Monday of 1209. A
colony from Bristol, enticed by the advantages held out to
them to settle in Dublin, had occupied a portion of the town,
and on the holiday in question went out to Cullenswood, a
mile from town, to amuse themselves. The O’Bymes and
O’Tooles of the Wicklow Mountains had naturally looked with
jealousy on the prosperity of those whom they considered
intruders, and came upon them suddenly when in the midst of
their enjoyment, slaying not less than 500 of them. “ Bloody-
Fields ” is a name not unfrequently given to the spot, and
Easter Monday was commonly know in Dublin by the epithet
of “Black Monday.” In the vicinity are many beautiful
villas. Sandford, a little farther on, has a fine church, erected
in 1826, at the cost of £5000, by the munificent Lord Mount-
sandford. The village owes its name to this circumstance.
The river Dodder is soon crossed, and we find ourselves
surrounded by beautiful villas, until we reach the little village
of Dundrum, in the parish of Taney. Dundrum is a rural
village, and therefore not to be confused with the market-town
of the same name in Ulster province. Wickham, the seat of
Leonard BickerstafF, Esq., is one of the principal villas in the
neighbourhood. The air is very salubrious, and much enjoyed
by invalids. We have now got to the commencement of the
Dublin Mountains, and will continue a somewhat hilly ascent
for the space of six miles. Three miles from Dundrum is the
village of Kilgobbin. To our left we see the dilapidated tower
of Kilgobbin Castle, erected by the early Saxon settlers to
secure themselves against the incursions of their warlike
neighbours, the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles. In the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, it was held by a scion of the Walsh family. An
old church stands on a grassy knoll, and beside it is one of the
ancient stone crosses almost peculiar to Ireland. Golden Ball
village is about a mile further on, and near it is the demesne
of Kilternan, the residence of Mr. Anderson, and church of the
same name, believed to be one of the oldest churches in the
country, although very little of the original now stands. The