Ballymore Eustace

History

The first reference to a church is in 1192, but the existence of two granite high crosses and early medieval grave slabs in St. John's church graveyard indicates a pre-Norman church site. The larger of the two crosses dates to the 10th or 11th century. It is over two metres tall and consists of a solid ring with short arms on a narrow shaft on a large undecorated rectangular base. The head and shaft were carved from a single block of granite. There is an inscription commemorating the re-erection of the cross in 1689 by Ambrose Walls. Ballymore Eustace in the 13th century (at the time simply known as Ballymore) was the site of a castle, which in 1244 was granted an eight-day fair to be held on site by Henry III. The parish and the town were part of a manor owned by the Archbishop of Dublin. Thomas Fitzoliver FitzEustace was granted a salary of £10 by the Archbishop for his work as constable and the upkeep of the castle in 1373, and his family came to be associated with the town, lending it its present name. In 1487-8, Archbishop Alen's Register described the line of the Pale thus: And in the third yere of King Henrie the seventhe, by acte of Parliament in Drogheda holden the friday after the Epiphanie, the bundes if the iiij obedient shires within the Macre distinct from the Marches were limite with in the countie of Dublin from Miryonge (Merrion) (inclusive) to the water of Dodor, by the neve diche (ditch) to Tassagarde, Rathcowle, Kilhele, Rathmor and Ballymor (Ballymore), and so from thens to the countie of Kildare etc. Ballymore was a key location on the 'woolpack road', along which woolpacks from the Curragh and from west Wicklow were transported to Dublin, via Rathcoole, from a very early date. The Manor of Ballymore had been involved in this trade, including…