The Site of Warren's Gate, Dundalk

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

The Site of Warren's Gate, DundalkAuthor(s): Noel RossSource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 23, No. 2(1994), pp. 214-217Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729755 .

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The Site of Warren's Gate,

Dundalk

By Noel Ross

Warren's Gate is depicted on each of the five known sixteenth and seventeenth-century maps of

the town of Dundalk although it is named on only two of these, Sir Henry Duke's 'plott' of 1594 and

Robert Richardson's map of 1680 (for particulars and reproductions of these maps see Gosling 1991,

333-4, nos 1,4,6,7, and 9). These maps show that the gate straddled the southern end of Clanbrassil

Street. As is well known, the walls and gates of Dundalk were removed by Lord Limerick in the 1740s

and so thoroughly was this done that not the faintest trace remains.

The position of the gate has been a matter of recurring interest to archaeologists and local

historians, and over the past eighty years this question has been addressed on a number of occasions.

There has, however, been no agreement as to its precise location. Various positions along a 130 metre

stretch of the southern end of Clanbrassil Street have been suggested. H. G. Tempest appears to have been the first to put forward a location and he returned to the

question several times. In 1915 he stated that Warren's Gate 'stood across Clanbrassil Street between

roughly the present Post Office and Messrs Eakins' shop and was flanked by a wall on each side

running east and west to the town-wall' (Tempest 1915, 396). In the first edition of his well-known

Guide he placed Warren's Gate at the Post Office (1917, 32). The second edition (revised) of 1920

repeated this identification (1920, 33). Later that year W. F. Butler wrote \ . . (Warren's) Gate must

have been where the Square is now' (1919-20, 278). In his article in the 1928 Journal Tempest moved

his location slightly northwards placing the gate 'on about the line of Market Street' (1928, 274), and

in 1935 he moved it further north again suggesting that it stood 'at roughly between the Lome Hotel

and Messrs John Cox & Co's' (1935, 8). Joseph Martin placed it 'at about the present Post Office'

(1942, 144-5). In the revised third edition of his Guide Tempest made no change to his 1917/1920

statement (1952, 31). Harold O'Sullivan opted for the most northerly site of all: 'near the Bachelors'

Walk junction with Clanbrassil Street' (1966, 10). Paul Gosling's Report situates Warren's Gate

'somewhere between the General Post Office and the Ulster Bank' (1982, part 3, 130). John Bradley chose a somewhat similar position (1984, Fig. 46). The map of Dundalk in Avril Thomas's Walled

Towns does not show sufficient detail to enable a precise location to be pin-pointed but the site

indicated appears to be at or about the Post Office (1992, Vol. 2, 95). The locations indicated by

Bradley and Thomas are presumably based on Gosling's Report. Finally, in his recently published

major survey of the town's topography and archaeology, having reviewed all the evidence Paul

Gosling considers the Market Street junction to be the most likely location (1991, 290). It is hoped that future development will reveal evidence to assist in the location of the site. In the

meantime, however, the only alternative is to attempt to trace it through documentary sources and in

particular, legal deeds.

Although there are five references to Warren's Gate in Dowdall Deeds between 1565 and 1689

none of these is precise enough for this purpose (McNeill and Otway-Ruthven 1960, nos 570, 697

(entries 14 and 15), 710, and 711). It is also mentioned in the patent granted to Viscount Dungannon in 1677, but apart from locating it in High Street no further details are supplied (Briscoe and McNeill

1838, 16). Fortunately a deed in the Society's collection provides a clear starting point. This has

already been published by Joseph Martin (1942, 144-5). It is a renewal dated 26 Sept. 1803 by Lord

Roden to Elizabeth Byrne of Grange. The premises had been leased (by way of release) to Gerald

Byrne, Elizabeth's husband, by the Earl of Clanbrassil on 3 Jan. 1770. The relevant part reads:

214



The Site of Warren's Gate 215

DUNDALK

key:

JOHN COX

LORNE HOTEL

HOGAN (LEAVY)

POST OFFICE

ULSTER BANK

EAKINS

? ?^? PROBABLE

LINE OF MEDIEVAL

DEFENCES

Based on the

BKS 1-2500 map

of Dundalk 1966

60m

pg

Map of southern end of Clanbrassil Street, Dundalk.

. . . one tenement at Warring's Gate in the Town of Dundalk . . . containing in front thirty

four feet and extending backwards two hundred and twenty eight feet bounded on the East

with the Street, on the South with the Widow Walsh's Garden, on the West with the said Earl

of Clanbrassil's Garden Wall and on the North with the Tenements formerly James

Dowdall's . . .

Reference to the Clanbrassil estate map of circa 1785 showed, rather surprisingly, that along the

western side of Clanbrassil Street none of the tenants listed were those mentioned in the lease

(O'Sullivan 1961, 79-80). Further research showed however, that the boundaries quoted were

repeated unchanged in various legal documents until 1881. It seems likely, therefore, that these

boundaries refer to a period before 1770 and were first set down in a document not now forthcoming. The Byrnes sold their interest to John Hinds in 1807 and the property can be traced through the

following deeds:

14 Apr. 1807

17 Jan. 1818

27 July 1832

1 Dec. 1852

23 Apr. 1863

2 Feb. 1881

Lease, Eliz. and Foster Byrne to John Hinds

Lease, Roden and trustees to John Hinds

Marriage settlement between Revd John Thomas Hinds and Margaret Dorothea Clowes

Fee farm grant, Roden to Hinds

Fee farm grant. Roden to Hinds and others

Conveyance, Prescot and others to Castle and others (Prescot was the

surviving trustee of the Hinds and Clowes marriage settlement).



216 County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal

On 22 Feb. 1881 the Hinds estate was put up for sale by public auction in seven lots in the Landed Estates Court in Dublin. The purchaser of Lot 2 (including 'the tenement at Warring's Gate') was John Hamill. A memorial of an indenture of conveyance dated 24 May 1881 repeats the

oft-quoted boundaries but adds:

and now known as house and premises number 94 Clanbrassil Street Dundalk in the actual

occupation of Malachi Hogan . . . (Registry of Deeds, No. 4223).

Old photographs, such as that reproduced in Dundalk: Images and Impressions, clearly show

Malachi Hogan's premises at No. 94, immediately adjoining the north side of the Post Office (Wilson et al, 1989, bottom of p. 28). These premises are now occupied by Leavys, chemists.

There can therefore no longer be any doubt as to the site of Warren's Gate. It straddled

Clanbrassil Street where No. 94 is today. This identification bears out Paul Gosling's contention that diligent research into legal deeds

would provide further important information on the town's topography, place-names and the accurate

location of some of the unprovenanced archaeological sites (1991, 233).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my thanks to Paul Gosling for reading a draft of this article and for supplying the map, and to the late Miss Maureen Wilson who searched the Registry of Deeds to find the

memorial quoted.

REFERENCES

Bradley, J. 1984 Urban Archaeological Survey ? Co. Louth (limited distribu

tion), O.P.W., Dublin.

Briscoe and McNeill 1838 Statement of Title of the Right Hon. Robert Earl of Roden to the

Manor, Town, and Lands of Dundalk, and other Lands in the

County of Louth, in Ireland, Dublin.

Butler, W. F. 1919-20 'Some Episodes of the Civil War of 1641-53 in Louth',

C.L.A.J., IV, 4, 277-89.

Gosling, P. 1982 A Survey and Report on the Archaeology of the Town and

District, 3 parts, Dundalk.

Gosline, P. 1991 'From Dun Delca to Dundalk: the topography and archaeology of

a medieval frontier town A.D. c. 1187-1700', C.L.A.H.J.,

XXII, 3, 221-353.

McNeill, C. and 1960 Dowdall Deeds, Dublin.

Otway-Ruthven, A. J.

Martin, J. 1942 'Old Title Deeds of Co. Louth: Some Dundalk Deeds 1707 to

1843', C.L.A.J., X, 2, 138-48.

O'Sullivan, H. 1961 'Two Eighteenth-century Maps of the Clanbrassil Estate,

Dundalk', C.L.A.J., XV, 1, 39-87.

O'Sullivan, H. 1966 'Dundalk from the Cromwellian Settlement to the End of the

Seventeenth Century', Tempest's Annual, 9-18.

Tempest, H. G. 1915 'Warresgate' in 'Notes and Queries', C.L.A.J., III, 4, 396.

Tempest, H. G. 1917 Guide to Dundalk & District, Dundalk.

Tempest, H. G. 1920 Guide to Dundalk and District, 2nd ed., Dundalk.



The Site of Warren's Gate 217

Tempest, H. G. 1928 'Three Seventeenth Century Maps of Dundalk', C.L.A.J., VI, 4, 270-4.

Tempest, H. G. 1935 'The Capture of Dundalk in 1642', Tempest's Annual, 8-12.

Tempest, H. G. 1952 Gossiping Guide to Dundalk, 3rd ed., Dundalk.

Thomas, A. 1992 The Walled Towns of Ireland, 2 vols, Dublin.

Wilson, M., Ross, N. 1989 Dundalk: Images and Impressions, Dundalk.

and Power, P. F.



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The Site of Warren's Gate, Dundalk