School: Rathcoffey, Donadea (roll number 6174)
- Location:
- Rathcoffey North, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Bean Uí Laideáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0771, Page 182
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Rathcoffey, Donadea
- XML Page 182
- XML “Local Heroes”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- A man named Fagan lived near Clane about 2 miles from here. He was a great sheaf thrower. He could throw a sheaf 22 feet high in the air and challenged several others, but always beat them. He could lift 6 stone weight over his head. He was a very stout man, being about 5 feet high and was almost as broad as he was long. My Grandfather who is 69 years of age remembers Fagan, who is dead for about 50 years.
A great Irish warrior lived in the old castle whose ruins are still to be seen on the top of Rathcoffey Hill, Donadea, Co Kildare.
His name was Hamilton Rowan. He was driven from his castle by English invaders and to escape he reversed the shoes on his horses. This plan baffled his pursuers for a time and he reached Castle Brown in safety. His friends lived there and the story is told that as he entered the castle (now known as Clongowes Wood College) the soldiers fired and Hamilton Rowan escaped out a window. The shots pierced a door and the marks are still to be seen this day on the doorway. My Daddy saw them a few years ago. Hamilton Rowan escaped to foreign countries.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- null
- Gender
- Male
