Walking the Cassie cattle trail: 1. From Beltoy to the 'Resting Slap'

As promised in the last posting, here is the first installment of the walk down the Cassie cattle trail with my re-united primary school friend, Ray Cowan.
We started at the Beltoy Road end of the Cassie, just beside Ray's 'home farm' where he lived when I last saw him (50 years ago). In the foreground of this photo of Ray (with the start of the Cassie behind him), is the Beltoy Road. This 'crossroad' is where the old cattle trail lane from Lough Mourne and the Commons meets the Beltoy Road before the cattle trail continues down the "Cassie" (Causeway) to Dalway's Bawn. This is the point I had got to before in my own explorations, as described in an earlier posting of 29/9/2101 "Along the Cattle Trail - in sight of Scotland".




A quick look at the map shows where we are about to start, marked in red - Beltoy Road. But before we even got going, Ray took me back to the ruined walls of his great grandmother's (Mary Moore) family farm at the end of the earlier section of the cattle trail coming down onto the Beltoy Road from Lough Mourne at Carnmanus - 1 David Moore (1860) on map.

We weren't long rambling round these ruins before the importance of this site to the whole cattle trail became obvious. The Beltoy Road between Eden to the south and Glenoe to the north is an ancient coach road, older than the cattle trail itself, and runs alongside the Copeland Water - the river that marks the boundary between the medieval County of Carrickfergus and the east Antrim lands granted in the 16th century to John Dalway of Dalway's Bawn and John Dobbs of Castle Dobbs.

This crossing point of the Cattle trail with Beltoy Road and the Copeland Water was the first significant "service station" for the drovers after the trek across the Commons from Ballynure, and the Moore farm here had paddocks, a circular "by-pass" lane to act as a passing place, and a frontage on the Copeland Water to water the beasts. It seems like this was an ideal stopping point for the drovers, and, just across the Beltoy Road on the Cassie, was a blacksmith's forge - 2. Blacksmith (William Greer, 1860) on map.

This photo shows the circular "by-pass" lane on the former Moore farm, looking back towards the site of the ruined stone house and outbuildings. The beech trees were planted on the Moore farm, but the belt of conifers that now covers the entire glen of the Copeland Water was planted by the Belfast Water Commissioners some time after 1870 when they bought out the entire Copeland Water river-course. This was done to 'sanitise' the land from farming 'pollution' along the water feed into the Copeland Reservoir that the Water Commissioners were about to construct at Marshallstown. And so the Moore farm was abandoned at that date.

This next view from the top of Carnmanus, looking down over the Beltoy 'glen' towards the fields on the Cowan farm in Bellahill, gives a good impression of how steep the slope was down to the Moore farm from that part of the Commons cattle trail.


Back to the start of the Cassie walk
So, back to where we started at the beginning of this post!












The Cassie is a wonderful country-lane walk, although a bit overgrown on this first stretch, with no sign of the old blacksmith's forge that once sat on the left-hand side.



The lane gets narrower as we go, so it is down to single-file!

I should say that it's not the lane that gets narrower, but that it has only been used as a single line 'pad' and the side hedges have encroached. Ray correctly predicts where there will be raspberry bushes among they blackberries - something he remembered from his childhood!




After a while we reach the first 'feature' of the walk: a sort of lane 'crossroads' - or rather a widening of the Cassie at a bend where two old redundant lane-ways join the Cassie.













Looking back from this point back down the path we had just come up, the line of conifers can be seen back on the far side of the Beltoy Road, where the Moore farm was. The new gate in the front right of the above photo blocks off another overgrown lane that leads to the farm that was the 'original' Cowan farm (marked as "3. John Cowan, 1860" on the map at the start of this post). It is another story for another time, but tracing this lane on older maps, it does seem to continue across the Beltoy Road further north, and on towards the north end of the Commons. This may have been an alternative route for the cattle trail that came round the north end of Lough Mourne rather than the south end.


And on the other side of the Cassie, facing south, is another gate closing off the back lane to Ray's 'home' farm (marked as "3. Cowan Farm, (John Davison, 1860) on map). This is the farm mentioned in previous posts where I attended Ray's 7th birthday party. It was owned by John Davison in 1860, but was bought by Ray Cowan's father in the 1930s and is where Ray was raised.

[To connect the families on the 3 farms highlighted on the map, John Cowan's son (also John Cowan and who was therefore Ray's great grandfather) married Mary Moore (daughter of David Moore of Carnmanus) in Ballycarry Presbyterian church in 1859. One of the witnesses was William Davison (son of John Davison).]


Pressing on, then, towards the 'Resting Slap', the track is still quite overgrown - but that only adds to my own sense of anticipation and exploration.



















Then, another opening appears ahead where the Cassie has a well-worn surface, and we get to the Resting Slap.














Looking back from here (below right), the path we have come seems a long way from the trees on the skyline where we started.

The Resting Slap is an appropriate name for the feature that marks the end of this first stage of our journey. As you can see, there are a number of openings into adjoining fields at this point. The term 'slap' is defined in James Fenton's Ulster-Scots dictionary The Hamely Tongue as meaning "a gap in a hedge allowing the passage of cattle, machines, etc. (normally closed with a gate, strands of barbed wire, etc.)"
It is marked on our map "4. Resting Slap" and the name tells of the days when this was a passing and a resting place for livestock being driven along the Cassie place in both directions. It is likely that the main traffic from the coast up to this point consisted of imported Scottish horses destined for the horse fairs at Ballyclare and Ballynure, along with cattle and other livestock heading for summer grazing on the Commons. The other direction, of course, was mainly cattle heading for the major drove roads in south-west Scotland from Ballynure and further west in mid Antrim.


Through one of the 'slaps' here, Ray pointed out where there was a legend of buried treasure. So, with the whiff of other pieces of folklore including a 'witch thorn' round the corner, we had to take a break at this stopping point ourselves.










The fields beside the Resting Slap mark a change of gradient for the Cassie. From here on, it is a decidedly downslope journey towards Dalway's Bawn and the coast at Whitehead and Portmuck. Glimpses of the distant Scottish coast are a feature along this cattle trail from time to time ahead and to the left. But here on the right hand side of the Resting Slap, Belfast Lough and the County Down coast are visible for the first time.
This somewhat hazy detail from the last photo shows that the Resting Slap even overlooks Carrickfergus. The keep of Carrick castle (built in the 12th century), is silhouetted against the lough in the center of the shot. On many a clear day centuries ago, drovers must have paused to enjoy this sight.

The next stage of the walk takes in even more surprises, and I still can't believe how fortunate I was to meet up again with the one person (Ray) who knows first-hand the history of the fields, farms and families along the Cassie.

Next, on our journey comes the Witchthorn and the site of the 'Witchthorn National School' right in the middle of the Cassie ... (coming soon!)

An uncanny reunion at Bellahill - to walk the 'Cassie' cattle trail to Dalway's Bawn.

Saturday 17 September 2011 was a big day for these 'East of Eden' chronicles (and for me), as I met up with Ray Cowan after almost 60 years at his childhood home farm in Bellahill - for my long-awaited exploration of the last unaltered stretch of the old cattle drove road from the Commons to Dalway's Bawn.

Ray now lives near Dublin with his wife Helen (uncanny again, as my own wife is called Helen too). We recently re-established contact after our early years at Eden Primary School in the 1950s, when he stumbled on this blog and an old photo taken at his 7th birthday party at his farm in Bellahill.


The detail shows Ray and myself in the middle - Ray sporting his birthday present of a toy gun.








I had posted this old photo in July 2010 in 'An uncanny gathering at Bellahill farm, near Dalway's Bawn, in 1953' and since then we have been in frequent email and telephone contact.

But our reunion had, of course, to be back at his scene of this 'uncanny gathering' - now his brother's farm, and a walk together down the 'Cassie' (the local name given to the old cattle drove track from Beltoy to Dalway's Bawn).

Both these farm photographs show something I didn't know in 1953 - that the trees behind the farm house mark the line of the old cattle drove road from Beltoy to Dalway's Bawn.

The following map shows the line of the 'Cassie' (Ulster-Scots for 'causeway') in blue, and the present Cowan farm is marked on this map as belonging to John Davison in 1860. As followers of this blog may recall, John Davison bought Dalway's Bawn at the end of the 19th century when Marriott Dalway emigrated to Australia, and the Cowans moved to this farm about the same time - from the one immediately to the north, marked 'John Cowan, 1860'.


The walk with Ray down the Cassie was a walk 'down memory lane' in more ways than one, and as there is too much to report in one posting, the next few will be photo-journeys and commentary on this 2-mile dander. It started where the Cassie crosses the Beltoy Road, behind the Cowan farm (to the right in this photo). Another previous post (29 September 2010) had covered the journey I made with my wife from Lough Mourne to the Beltoy Road: 'Along the Cattle Trail - In sight of Scotland'.





Well, just to prove we did finish it, here is Ray at the bottom end of the Cassie, where it comes onto the Dalway's Bawn. It was a great and memorable day - full of nostalgia and new information gleaned from Ray's encyclopaedic knowledge of every farm and field along the way.













To be continued ....

What happened when the Dalways of Dalway's Bawn went "Down Under".

Marriott Robert Dalway was the last of the Dalways to live at Dalway’s Bawn. He left Ireland for Australia at the end of 1886, shortly after Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill for Ireland was defeated in the Commons.

Marriott Robert Dalway had been a Liberal M.P. for Carrickfergus until he lost his seat by 37 votes in 1880 to Thomas Greer, a local Conservative. Almost immediately, Marriott Robert Dalway sought to unseat Thomas Greer on the grounds of "bribery, treating, personation, and undue influence, used either by Mr. Greer or those employed on his behalf". When the petition was finally heard and rejected in 1883 at a court in Carrickfergus, Mr. Greer was "drawn in triumph through the principal streets of the town, in an open carriage, by his enthusiastic supporters, and afterwards drawn to his residence at Seapark, where he addressed a large crowd assembled on the lawn in front of his house".

What a contrast this had been to the evening in 1868 when Marriott Dalway had been first elected as M.P. for Carrickfergus. Then "tar barrels and bonfires were lighted on all the surrounding hills". Interestingly, back then in 1868 the defeated candidate had also unsuccessfully petitioned against Dalway's election on the grounds of "corrupt practices, namely, treating, bribery, and intimidation". When Marriott Robert Dalway was again elected in 1874, he then stood as a Conservative, and "the Conservative working men manifested their delight that the Protestant cause had been successful at the election of M. R. Dalway, M.P., and that the Conservative Government had entered into office, by burning tar barrels. There was a display of fireworks from the Scotch Quarter Quay".

But the rise of Irish Catholic Nationalism in the 1880s was viewed with alarm in the mostly Protestant constituency of Carrickfergus. Marriott R. Dalway's support for the Gladstone Liberal government - in particular its proposals for Home Rule in Ireland - inevitably led to his unseating as the local population feverishly opposed the Home Rule movement (calling it "Rome Rule"). In 1886, the anti-Home-Rule Conservatives came to power in London, and the Unionist movement took off in Ireland.

So that was the context for Marriott Dalway to take his wife Elizabeth and their three sons (Andrew, Robert and John) on board the Australasian and set sail for Melbourne to begin a new life in Australia. They arrived in Melbourne in February 1887, and set up their new home 150 km south west of Melbourne at the coastal settlement of Lorne, in Victoria.

In a previous post "Whatever happened to the Dalways of Bellahill (Dalways Bawn)?"(19 January, 2011), I gave an account of some other dimensions of Marriott Robert Dalway's career, and I had then blamed his departure for Australia on the collapse of a salt mining enterprise on his lands at Eden. But it looks as if it may have been a combination of factors that led to his departure. Of course, the demise of the Dalway cattle empire and its cattle trail across the Commons had been an inevitable casualty of steam railways and steam cattle ships operating from the bigger ports. Although Marriott Robert Dalway was at the forefront of many "diversification" schemes, his family's days at Bellahill were numbered, even as he headed the Municipal Commissioners as they distributed the lands of the "Great Commons" into small holdings.

In those final years, however, there were few signs that Marriott Robert Dalway was a spent force at home. In April 1885, the future King Edward and Queen Alexandra, as the Prince and Princess of Wales, visited Carrickfergus.

"The Royal Party arrived by special train and were received at the station by Mr. Marriott R. Dalway, who wore the uniform of a Deputy-Lieutenant. On their arrival a Royal Salute of twenty-one guns was fired from the cannons at the Castle. The distinguished visitors then proceeded in carriages through Railway Street, Albert Road, West Street, Market Place, and Castle Street, to the Harbour, where Mr. M. R. Dalway, D.L., presented a most loyal address from the Municipal Commissioners and Harbour Commissioners".

A keen yachtsman, Marriott Dalway must have been attracted to Lorne at least partly by its location (In 1865, the first regatta was held at Carrickfergus, "under the direction and supervision of Marriott R. Dalway, Esq., J.P., Commodore"). The following details of his later life and that of his family in Lorne have been sent to me by Barry Wilson, who is himself connected to this Australian 'branch'. I am very grateful to Barry for also sending me photos of the Dalway graves in Lorne cemetery and allowing me to post these.

The first Dalway burial in Lorne Cemetery off Dalway Street (where else?) was that of Marriott Dalway's wife Elizabeth who died in 1899 at the age of 65.

In November of the same year (1899), Marriott married his second wife, Fanny Anna Langdon who was then 57. Fanny had been living in Lorne with her uncle Nicholas Sydenham Sabine until he died and left her a house in Lorne that was to remain the Dalway family home until Fanny died at the age of 101 in 1943.


This house was a prefabricated timber house delivered into Lorne by sea, in a ship captained by Fanny's father Capt. Frederick William Langdon.
When Fanny married Marriott Robert Dalway they both lived in it, on its original site down adjacent to the beach, near the pier. This is more than likely where Marriott Died in 1914. After Fanny's death, the house was sold and moved again to a new location where it remains as a holiday new site just outside the town and available as a holiday house called "The Gables" in the hills above Lorne.

Fanny Dalway died in 1943, and is also buried in the Lorne Cemetery.















Marriott Robert Dalway died in 1914, and he too is buried in the Lorne Cemetery, somewhat ignominiously, with his name mis-spelled.

Barry Wilson, who as I say supplied me with these details, has tracked the families of the three sons of Marriott Dalway in Australia. He is a descendant of the Sabine family of Dorset, and his great, great grandfather, Rev. Thomas Sabine married a Caroline Langdon, and whose sister Jane married Capt. Frederick William Langdon - the parents of Fanny Anna DALWAY nee LANGDON, Marriott Robert Dalway's second wife.
It is a small world indeed, made all the wee-er by the wonders of the world-wide web!

The O'Haughan Brothers: Outlaws on the Commons Cattle Trail

There is a cave called "O'Haughan's Cave" at the foot of the Knockagh cliffs above Greenisland, just west of the town of Carrickfergus. This was one of the hideaways of a band of outlaws led by the O'Haughan Brothers who had terrorised the lowland farms around the Commons of Carrickfergus in the early 18th century.

They operated from caves and hideaways in the mountains until, one-by-one, they were captured by soldiers and hanged at Gallows Green near where the above photo was taken at the Troopers Lane end of Carrickfergus. Miskimmon's "History of Carrickfergus" describes three caves in the southern brow of Knockagh as,

"cut out of the rock, which, from the difficulty of ascent to them, appear to have been intended as places of refuge ... The most western of these caves is locally known as O'Haughan's Cave. Eneas O'Haughan was one of four brothers, robbers, who were long a terror to the neighbourhood. They ascended and descended by the Deer's Lane to the house of a Mrs. Jacques".

The Knockagh escarpment is a clear boundary between the the highest and poorest land of the Commons of Carrickfergus to the north-west, and the West Division of the County of Carrickfergus with it's coastal plain sweeping down to the shores of Belfast Lough at Lower Greenisland to the south-east. Above the Knockagh, the Commons were unenclosed in the 1700s when the O'Haughan Brothers were operating. At one end of the Knockagh cliffs is a narrow gap which is the only access up onto the commons from this western section of Carrickfergus County.

The O'Haughans were frequently chased by troops from the Garrison at Carrick up "Trooper's Lane" onto the Commons though the Stoney Glen, but then they would seem to mysteriously disappear when they backtracked in a circle down the Deer's Lane to hide in the caves underneath the Knockagh - from where they could watch for the troops returning to the town.

The map of this part of the Commons boundary shows how O'Haughan's Cave was accessed from the Commons, remembering that it was in the early 1700s when these events were unfolding, and the Commons wasn't divided into fields until after 1870.


THE O'HAUGHAN BROTHERS

About 1710, John O'Haughan, a hill farmer was living near Braetown at the head of the Glenwhirry valley north of Ballynure, close to the Carnalbanagh Hills where the Portglenone to Larne cattle trail approached Kilwaughter and Larne. This was the home territory of the O'Haughans as far back as 1669 when we find a Donel Oge O'Haughian and a Neese O'Haughian living there in the Hearth Money Rolls of that date. By 1900 almost all of that family were living in the Ballycarry and Eden area of east Antrim, and using the spelling "Hawkins". (Interestingly enough, the 1901 census reveals a number of Catholics with the name "Haughan" living in Belfast - but in east Antrim the more numerous Hawkins were all Presbyterian).

Back about 1710, John O'Haughan was being evicted by his landlord for non-payment of rent when the bailiff was killed by one of his four sons. These four brothers - Roger, Eneas, Shane Oge and Neese O'Haughan went on the run, along with a foster brother Phelimy, and they joined an outlaw band of "freebooters" led by a "Captain" McAllister, himself from near Ballynure.

Not long after the O'Haughan brothers joined the outlaw band, Captain McAllister was captured by troops from Carrickfergus and executed. Neese O'Haughan was unanimously chosen leader in his stead, and they raided - almost always at night - farms and houses not only around the Commons and the mid-Antrim valleys of the Braid and Glenwhirry, but occasionally ventured as far as Ligoniel on the northern outskirts of Belfast, hiding out when necessary on Divis, the Black Mountain or the back of Cave Hill .

Of course, the gang only resorted to caves when being pursued, and after a successful night they frequented shibeens in clachans (farm villages) like Raloo north of the Commons where they would divide their spoils, keeping their hosts sweet with 'gifts' of rustled livestock. The exploits of the gang soon became the stuff of 'Robin Hood' - type legend, and their number included (according to one ballad): "The Boul Neese O'Haughin, and Shane Og the tory, Little Owen Murphy, and his young brother Rory. Randal John Agnew, M'Ginty, and M'Ginnis, tho' half the Braid pursue, made good the upper Teenies ". In a previous post I made mention of the Steel Boys raids from the Commons in the 1770s: "Among those convicted in 1770 was a Paddy McKenty of Raloo, who almost certainly was from the same family as the ancestors of the modern crime writer Adrian McKinty mentioned in my last posting". Adrian, who now lives in Australia, commented on that post to ask if I was saying that his great-great ... great grandfather was a cattle rustler. Hmm! No, but it is worth noting that a McKinty/McGinty was a member of the infamous O'Haughan band of outlaws in the 1710s!

When Neese O'Haughan was captured and executed, his brother Shane Oge became leader of the outlaw gang. In 1843, a folk poet from Ballynure (Samuel Turner) published a detailed account of the exploits of this gang along with a lengthy poem about "The betrayal of Shane Oge" which inevitably ends with the capture of Shane Oge. He describes elsewhere in his book how Shane Oge had, on becoming leader of the gang, "stood at the entrance of a cave at the Knockagh, and witnessed the procession that accompanied his brother to the fatal gallows at Carrickfergus".

Stories of the O'Haughans "robbing the rich to help the poor" became almost as numerous as their and legendary as their cleverness in outwitting their military and bounty-hunting pursuers. Numerous escapades are detailed in Samuel Turner's book: Gleanings from Ballyboley Braes: Career of The Freebooters Ohaughin, and Poems, (Ballymena Observer, 1843). One example of a chase of Shane Oge O'Haughan by dragoons from Carrick up to the Knockagh Cave is given in this book as follows:

On another occasion the “fogies” – as the old pensioners then doing garrison duty in the Castle of Carrickfergus were called – were ordered out to beat up his haunts about the Knockagh, and if possible to secure him. They accordingly sallied out one fine morning, and advanced cautiously and steadily till they had reached a place called Archy’s Bushes, at that time a favourite retreat for Shane Oge and his companions. Here they distinctly observed the object of their search apparently fast asleep on a ledge of rock which overhung the precipice, and looking on him now as good as taken, they dismounted from their horses, and stole forward on tip-toe to make him their prisoner. But the wily Shane Oge was not thus to be caught napping, for coolly waiting till they came within a few yards, he started up, emptied the contents of a pistol into the body of the nearest horse, slid down the precipice, and was out of sight in an instant. The fogies were thunder struck at his sudden disappearance, but thinking it impossible he could escape them, and that he must be hidden somewhere near, they commenced a strict and active search among the tangled masses of brambles, stunted bushes, and underwood with which the spot abounded, in hopes to make out his whereabouts, till convinced he was not there, they took a wider range and had at last the pleasure of lighting upon his trail. By this time, however, Shane Oge was far a-head in the direction of Glenwherry, and, owing to his having taken the precaution of choosing the worst and most impracticable paths for horsemen, it was not till they had come in sight of Ballynure that they once more caught a glimpse of the object of their pursuit. He was yet a long way off, however, and breathless and worn out by the length of the run, was straining every nerve to reach the crest of the hill at a little distance before him, when a shrill peculiarly modulated whistle struck upon his ear. The meaning of this friendly recognition he well knew, for on reaching the top of the eminence he at once threw himself flat on his face among the tall and luxuriant heather, and awaited the result with the greatest composure. It is here necessary to say that his brother Philemy, being prowling about in that direction, had witnessed the chase from the time the horsemen emerged from the Commons above Straid, and divining the cause, had awaited patiently till Shane Oge came within ear-shot and then intimating to him by the whistle to hide himself, and diverging considerably to one side so as to draw the soldiers off the direct line of pursuit, lest they might stumble on his brother in his hiding-place, he folded his arms and stood ready to shew himself to the fogies as soon as they topped the eminence, fully determined on having a new run with them over the mountains and mosses on his own account. In this he was fully gratified, for they no sooner observed him standing, as if merely drawing his breath for a moment before attempting the ascent of a somewhat steep acclivity in front, than they gave chase, little thinking they had started a fresh man, and one too that was no less swift of foot than his brother. Onward and onward they went over rock and scaur, through long heather and bog hole and quagmire – the crafty Philemy all the while never seeking to damp the ardour of the pursuit, by getting too far ahead – till he reached the old Deerpark at Glenarm, when, thinking he had done enough, he vaulted lightly over the boundary wall of the enclosure, leaving the tired and out-manouvred fogies to retrace their footsteps as they best might to Carrickfergus, crest-fallen and dispirited at the ill success of their hard day’s run.

Another story worth quoting is how Shane Oge spared a farmer in Bryantang at the Ballynure end of the Dalway Cattle Trail when he came across him at prayer:

Having heard of an old man in the neighbourhood of Ballynure named Scott, who lived almost alone and was reputed to be very rich, Shane Oge and his associates resolved on paying him a visit. Meeting therefore by appointment one evening at his residence, and reconnoitering the premises they soon found it would be no difficulty to effect an entrance; and once inside there was only a grey-haired old man and a helpless old woman to oppose their ransacking the house. Directing his companions therefore, to keep out of the way till they got the signal to advance, Shane Oge stepped up cautiously to the door, to listen if all were quiet, just as the voices of the inmates were raised aloft in prayer and praise to their Creator, before retiring to rest. He stood riveted to the spot while the good old man implored the Divine protection through the dark and silent watches of the night – heard him praying fervently for his enemies – the widow and the fatherless, the poor, the sick, the aged and the infirm, the household outcast and the wanderer, who had none on earth to help them, and knew not where to lay their head – till at length touched with compunction at what he was about to do on the unsuspecting and pious old man, he withdrew from his position at the door, as silently as he had advanced, and, beckoning on his companions, told them what he had heard, and that he had come to the determination of retiring from the place immediately and leaving him unmolested. This the others strenuously opposed, but on Shane Oge telling them flatly and plainly that the good old man was in the service of his Maker while they were in the service of the devil, and threatening them with his severest and unabated displeasure should they ever at any time from that night forth dare to molest, even to the value of a single cabbage stalk, about the premises, they at length, slowly and gloomily withdrew, muttering curses, not loud, but deep, on the sudden and unaccountable tender-heartedness of their once fierce and unscrupulous leader.

If these tales of outlaws on the Commons cattle trail don't resonate with an American connection, then I don't know what would - not even the Andrew Jackson homestead beside Dalway's Bawn.