Church Micro IE 44 – St. Mary's, Crumlin Traditional Cache
GoldCircle: This cache seems to generate a lot of DNFs, despite being an easy find. And it's always in place. I think after11 years, this cache has run its course and the location should be opened up for a new and exciting cache.
So, thanks for visiting!
Archived.
Church Micro IE 44 – St. Mary's, Crumlin
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Size: 
(micro)
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This is a cache-and-dash installation in a small carpark, not far from Crumlin Children's Hospital, that tells something of the story the Parish of St Mary the Virgin, in Crumlin, Barony of Uppercross, County of Dublin. You get two churches for the price of one with this cache – Old and New St. Mary’s. The container is a micro, containing just a log book. Bring your own pen.
Congratulations to KowaiBaz on being FTF!!!
Norman Conquest
Soon after the fall of Viking Dublin to the Normans, King Henry II arrived in Ireland in 1171 to claim his new dominion and in accordance with the Bristol Charter, he brought with him groups of settlers who brought with them a new language, culture, methods of farming and social organisation. Crumlin was seen as a prize possession with fresh water, woodland and arable pasture in addition to limestone quarries. Although there is no record of the first building of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, but it is understood that it was already established at the time of the Norman Conquest. Crumlin was constituted a Royal Manor by King John sometime before the end of his reign in 1216.
A Norman motte, or raised ring earthwork, was evident just northeast of Old St. Mary’s, the site of New St. Mary’s, and this earthwork of some 10m in height, was only levelled in 1929 to make way for a sports ground for the workers of the Wills Tobacco factory (of which more later).
Old St. Mary’s
Unfortunately, this beautiful little church is privately owned and not generally open to the public, but decent views are available from several angles, not least through the two gates. Little archaeological work has been done on the site of the now de-consecrated Old St. Mary’s, and little of interest has been found, but several churches have stood in the Gaelic-style circular grounds since its inception. In recent years a FÁS project has helped to renovate and preserve the structure. The present old church was rebuilt using a grant of £1000 from the board of First Fruits in 1817 to create the single-aisled knave, entered through the earlier Norman tower on the west side. There is a small chancel to the east side behind the altar with a Gothic stained glass tracery (boarded up to prevent vandalism). The south wall, on the Crumlin Village side, has three simple gothic windows.
With the suppression of the monasteries in 1536, the church was seized for the crown and locals – Norman and Gaelic alike – largely refused to conform to the new order and the church quickly fell in to disrepair, as there was no resident Parson to oversee its upkeep; the Church had been serviced by a Parson from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the nearby city of Dublin. In 1540, and for decades thereafter, O’Toole of Wicklow and other Gaelic Chieftans raided the Royal Manors and laid them waste; in 1594, Crumlin was entirely burnt to the ground, including the Church, by Walter Reagh FitzGerald. It wasn’t till 1630 that the Church was fully restored, due to the heavy toll in human life and accruing wealth, taken on the community by the Wicklow raiders.
The tower of Old St. Mary’s, complete with Síle na Gig, holds two rooms accessible by a narrow stone spiral staircase, the first has a sharply vaulted roof, with obvious sign of wattles. The upper chamber was a bell house with an aperture, still visible for a modern bell. The original bell was hidden in a private house in Puritan times to prevent its removal to a meeting house in Newcastle in 1654. Fine view of south County Dublin are available, if you are so lucky as to gain entry to this church.
Over the entrance to Old St. Mary’s was a skull and crossbones bearing an inscription from Genesis 28:17. The crossbones went missing in the 1980s, likely vandalised rather than plundered.
New St. Mary’s
In the early part of the twentieth century, attandances at the Parish of St. Mary’s were so low that it was feared that the Church may be closed. In 1923 WD & HO Wills & Co. (the tobacco company on the South Circular Rd.) built a square of houses just off the Crumlin road for their workers, whom they brought over from Liverpool and Bristol and this substantially boosted numbers in the Parish. Closure came, nonetheless, but was later reversed. Parish attendances were further augmented when the Iveagh Trust (the Guinness family) built substantial housing for their brewery workers in the area, adding an additional 40 Anglican families to the Parish.
In 1942, despite the shortage of building materials during ‘the emergency’ a new art deco Church was built in the adjoining site using distinctive yellow bricks from the local Dolphin’s Barn brickworks just off the Crumlin Rd. (now Dunnes Stores at Brickfield Park). This was the last large scale commission before the claypit closed - and construction of Corporation housing began shortly afterwards on the site of the brickyard.
New St. Mary’s also has the honour of being the last Anglican Church to have been built in Dublin.
The Cache
The container is a micro, containing just a log book, but will definitely not take any trackables. Bring your own pen. 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.
There is a large and pleasant park down the laneway beside GZ - this is Pearse Park and offers a pleasant walking circuit and recently landscaped beds in addition to several grass and all-weather football pitches. The park, like most others, is prone to anti-social behaviour at night-time - but is well used by joggers, young families and the grey-rinse brigade during daylight hours.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Yrsg bs tngr, ybj.
Treasures
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