We discovered this spot while rambling around the area during the Covid-19 lockdown, when all we could do was walk the roads for our daily exercise. A quick look at the Historic OSI maps and the Cassini 6-inch maps confirmed our thoughts, and identified the remains of a Paper Mill near this spot immediately West of the cache. This is the first of a short trail we hid at this time.
There were 11 paper mills at the close of the 18th century along the Glanmire and Glashaboy Rivers - streams which run along the winding valley of the old approach road to Cork before the modern bypass was built. In Co Cork there were two paper mills at Bandon and one at Blarney.
The Napoleonic Wars opened up opportunities later as the exclusion of French produce from Irish markets created more local markets for goods. At that time the French were manufacturing the best paper in the world and their exclusion provided an impetus to the local paper factories in the Glanmire area. Records refer to a Thomas Bond who had a paper mill at Riverstown circa 1754 and in 1768 there was a mill at Springhill operated by the Quaker partners; Saleb and Caleb Neale. There was also a mill operated by the O’ Brien’s on the Butlerstown stream as it flowed through Trantstown. One operated by Phairs’ at Ballyvisteale (Sallybrook) was subsequently converted into a flax mill by the Cummins family. At that time paper was manufactured by using cloth or rags as a raw material and the numerous cloth factories in the area provided a plentiful supply of waste products to these enterprises. There were further mills at Gogginstown, Sallybrook, Poulacurry, Kilrussanne and Glanmire. When the technology of paper making began to favour the use of wood pulp to replace the old cloth based routines; the paper making industry began to die slowly and the timber based factories of North America and Scandinavia developed. Other enterprises in the area continued and some expanded into premises vacated by paper manufacturers. The last mill on record is that of Timothy Hegarty which was passed on by his son Denis to James Ryan. This mill confined itself to packing and wrapping paper for the drapery and provision trades until its closure in the early 1900’s.
One of Cork's well known merchants, Joseph Lavitt (with a Quay named after him in the city), a Huguenot merchant who came to Cork in 1690 made a fortune refining sugar and supplying spirits to the Williamite army in Ireland. However, Lavit's business concerns were not restricted to sugar and whiskey; he started Cork's first paper mill at Glanmire.
The cache itself is a clever little hide on the roadside.