In the closing years of the 18th century the antiquarian Edward Ledwich visited Glendalough and wrote his observations in Antiquities of Ireland. In the following decades, with no legal protection for national monuments, the ruins were vandalised.
Forty years later, John O'Donovan found that only the doorway of Our Lady's Church was standing. He regretted that Dr Ledwich had not left a better description of an architectural gem which had been nearly perfect in his time. Another example of early Christian architecture, St Kevin's Kitchen, was, he feared, destined to "disappear in another century".
O'Donovan, the future professor of Celtic languages at Queen's College, Belfast, and Eugene Curry, afterwards professor of Irish history and archaeology at Newman's University, were employed by the Ordnance Survey to follow in the footsteps of the military cartographers, recording antiquarian remains. Other members of the group included Thomas O'Conor, teacher of Languages, and William Frederick Wakeman, artist.
Reports almost daily
Their research was coordinated by Dr George Petrie, Scotsman of many artistic talents, director of the placenames and antiquities division of the Ordnance Survey. They reported by letter almost daily to Lieut Thomas Larcon, Royal Engineers, at Ordnance Survey headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Curry arrived in Ennskerry in December 1838 and "proceeded without delay to learn the pronunciation of the townland names of the parish of Powerscourt. He hoped Larcom would "furnish quills, paper, pencils and sealing wax."
The work they undertook was fit only for the hardiest of young men, tramping the rugged terrain in all weathers. Writing from Rathdrum on January 7th, 1839 O'Donovan described his and O'Conor's efforts to reach Glendalough. In Blessington, an increase in car hire was demanded for the next leg of the journey. Their budget not allowing this extravagance, they set out on foot, "in good humour. . .only 16 miles by road".
Stopping along the way to look at old churches, they were overtaken by a snowstorm - "luxuriant heavy leaves" At Charley Clarke's public house they got "infernally bad treatment", spending a sleepless night in damp beds. The following morning, Sunday, they headed for Glendalough again, sinking to their knees in the snow drifts, O'Conor "never feeling so tired".
In the Glendalough hotel on the Night of the Big Wind "a most tremendous hurricane" struck the house, blowing in the windows. Fearing that the roof would go, O'Donovan was struggling with the shutters when "a squall mighty as a thunderbolt" propelled him across the room. While O'Conor slept through the din, the landlord was out saving his livestock. Rudely awakened by his companion, O'Conor was shocked by the cold. The "fire of life was very nearly quenched in me."
Not "learned enough"
Returning to Glendalough in 1840, O'Donovan was critical of visitors before him who had failed to compare the contemporary scene with recorded evidence of conditions in earlier times. The antiquarians who had passed that way in earlier years had not been "learned enough to think of it".
Delving in the 10th-century Codex Killenniensis in Marsh's Library for a life of St Kevin, he found "a few historical truths sparking among the fables like gold among base metal". There was the legend of the white cow which suckled the infant Coemgen, who called one of his bells Bo Ban, the novice who defended himself with nettles against the amorous advances of a beautiful girl, whom he converted; the hermit found a under a tree with many singing birds perched on his hands and shoulders. But O'Donovan discounted as without authority the story of the blackbird hatching its eggs in Kevin's hand.
Curry recorded that St Kevin in old age, intending to make some long journey, was advised by a confrere, Carbhan, to rest himself, for "no bird could hatch her eggs while flying."
Long-lost ruins
The Roundwood community will be interested to find mention of long-lost church ruins at Knockatemple, where Curry in 1839 inspected surviving foundations, a holy water font, and several old graves covered with blackthorns. Forty years ago I walked the townland with the late Garda Joe McLoughlin from Co Donegal, who had a holding in Knockatemple. We searched in vain for any sign of the ancient site.
With the support of the National Millennium Committee, the Roundwood Historical and Folklore Society and Wicklow Archaeological Society are publishing the Co Wicklow letters from the collections preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. Ordnance Survey Letters of County Wicklow, with an elegant introduction by the joint chairmen, Chris Corlett and John Medlycott, was published on May 14th and may be ordered from the societies (paperback £20, hardback £35). Antiquaries, bibliophiles and all who are interested in the history and folklore of Wicklow are sure to give the enterprise an enthusiastic reception.