Rathfriland

EDITED EXTRACTS FROM THE TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF IRELAND, 1837

RATHFRILAND, a market and post town, partly in the parish of Drumballyroney, but chiefly in that of Drumgath, union of Newry, barony of Upper Iveagh, County Down.

The town is 16½ miles from Downpatrick, on the road from Newry to Downpatrick.

Rathfriland was founded, soon after the Restoration, by Alderman William Hawkins, of London, to whom, in acknowledgment of his very important services during the parliamentary war [English Civil War], CHARLES II granted the whole of the extensive manor, which is now the property of his lineal descendant, General the Hon Robert Meade.

The benevolent alderman, at his own cost, provided food, clothing, and lodging for 5,000 Protestant royalists, who, during the calamitous progress of the war, had fled to London for protection; collected in England £30,000 [about £5.7 million today] for the purchase of corn, wearing-apparel, and other necessaries for the support of such as had not been able to effect their escape; and, with the assistance of a few of his friends, raised the sum of £45,000 [about £8.6 million today] for the public service and the use of the King.

Rathfriland ca 1830 (historic OS map).  Click to enlarge.

The town is situated on an eminence, previously the site of an ancient fortress, about three miles to the north of the Mourne Mountains; and consists of a spacious square, and five principal and smaller streets, containing together 480 houses, which are in general well built and of handsome appearance, surrounding the crown of the hill.

The rock on which it stands, and of which its houses are built, is a firm, close, gritty sandstone, abounding near the surface of the adjacent lands, easily cut into squares, pillars, urns, and vases, and yielding, in the quarries whence it is raised, a dry and bright-coloured sand of excellent use in garden walks.

  

Image: Newry & Mourne Museum)

The principal streets communicate with five great roads from different parts of the county, but, from the acclivity of the site, the roads form steep entrances into the town; from which in every direction are extensive and interesting views of the surrounding country.

A considerable traffic is carried on with the adjacent district, and the town itself is the residence of numerous respectable families.

The market is on Wednesday, and is amply supplied; fairs are held in the second Wednesday in April, the Wednesday after Trinity, the second Wednesday in September, and the second Wednesday in December.

Image: Newry & Mourne Museum)

The market-house is a handsome building in the centre of the Square; the lower part is appropriated to the use of the market, and the upper part contains accommodation for holding courts.

A constabulary police force is stationed in the town, and petty sessions are held on alternate Fridays.

The manorial court is held on the first Tuesday in every month before the seneschal; its jurisdiction extends to pleas of debt to the amount of £100 [about £10,000 today], which may be recovered by civil -bill process.

The parish church of Drumgath, a small, neat edifice with a tower on the north side, is situated on the south side of the Square; it was originally founded by Robert Hawkins-Magill [of Gill Hall], maternal grandfather of General Meade, and was rebuilt in 1818.

There are also in the town a spacious RC chapel; places of worship for the Society of Friends, Presbyterians, Covenanters, and Wesleyan Methodists; and a dispensary.

On the very summit of the hill round which the town is built, are some slight remains of the castle of the powerful sept of the Magennises, lords of Iveagh, commanding the entire country for ten miles round; a modern house was erected on the site in 1812, when, in digging the foundation, many small cells were discovered, in some of which were human bones, pieces of armour, coins, and other relics.

The castle was originally a large pile, but it was pulled down by the first Protestant proprietor of the town after the Rebellion of 1641, and used as a quarry for the erection of the inn and other houses of the town.