GC43C9F Around Chicken Cullen (Traditional Cache) in Dublin, Ireland created by GoldCircle

This cache has been archived.

GoldCircle: This was our very first placement, so it has a very special place in our hearts!

I has been muggled repeatedly in the last few months, presumably by the same person. I am going to archive this and re-place it after a suitable amount of fallow time has passed to allow whoever is taking the caches to forget that it is there.

Thanks for visiting!

GC43C9F ▼

A cache by GoldCircle Message this owner

Hidden : 12/30/2012

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

This is intended to be a cache-and-dash installation that tells the story of Michael 'Chicken' Cullen. The container is a micro, containing just a log book, but will not support visitors. Bring your own pen. A long reach is required. Best done at night, as there is ALWAYS traffic.

Congratulations to KowaiBaz on being FTF!!!

Chicken Cullen & The Walkinstown Roundabout

This cache is dedicated to the memory of Michael ‘Chicken’ Cullen and his sister Dolly who lived in a house on the corner of Wilkinstown Cross, built in the 1865 by their father, at the meeting points of the 3 townlands of Wilkinstown, Greenhills and Commons in the district of Crumlin, Barony of Uppercross, in the County of Dublin.

Much has changed since then, not least the name Wilkinstown, so called after the now-demolished Wilkinstown House, family home of the ‘Bird’ Flannagan, which was situated on the ‘old’ Walkinstown Rd., where Superquinn now sits. As the estates of Dublin city encroached on the rolling countryside in the 1950s, new roads were opened and this simple country crossroads on the main Tallaght/Blessington Road at the intersection of the Greenhills Rd. and Cromwellsfort Lane became a monster junction with 7 roads converging. Nowadays, 6 main roads meet at Walkinstown Roundabout (Bunting Rd. has been set back to join the Cromwellsfort Rd.) to make Dublin’s busiest roundabout – an iconic and much hated feature for drivers in south west Dublin. Anecdotally, this is the most ‘crashed’ piece of road in the country.

Impasse

In 1950, Michael ‘Chicken’ Cullen, 65, refused to sell his home to Dublin Corporation for £1000, despite being served with a compulsory purchase order. The Corporation offered to build Chicken and his sister a new house – and indeed they did this – a pleasant cottage first on the left side of Walkinstown Avenue; Chicken however refused to move to this new house, as the Corporation refused to grant freehold on the property, insisting on leasehold of one shilling per year.

And so a 21 year impasse began – and Chicken remained something of a cause célèbre locally.

Ultimately, the Corporation built a road system around the Cullen house, effectively stranding the occupants more or less at the centre of what is the modern day roundabout, though at that time, there were two smaller roundabouts at either end, with traffic passing in both directions in front and behind.

Progress

One night without warning in 1971, Cullen, by then aged 86, quietly moved his belongings to the new house across the road. The story goes that a local Councillor offered to pay the nominal rental on the property. The Corporation moved in almost immediately and demolished the old Cullen family home – Chicken was said to be heartbroken and wept openly at the sight.

Michael ‘Chicken’ Cullen passed away peacefully some nine years later in 1980, aged 95.

The Cache

The container is a micro, containing just a log book, but will not take any trackables. Bring your own pen. There is ALWAYS traffic lined up at GZ, so this grab is best done at night. Due to the water-accessible nature of the placement, please be sure to seal the bag containing the log very tightly. Please log a maintenance request if the bag is torn, or the seal is banjaxed.

A long arm will be required, so if you're not a gorilla, you may want to bring a taller friend or a stack of phone books.