School: Wilkinstown (roll number 1917)

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1. The Bishop's Field (continued)

   

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   the residents still speak of it as the Bishop's Field.
   Old people of the district say that a bishop had his home here hundreds of years ago and that he lived in a castle. The castle is said to have been one of the great stone buildings resembling Clongill Castle and was probably built by some Norman lord.
   Through time it must have passed into the hands of the clergy and thus become the residence of the Bishop. During some of the religious persecutions, believed to have been during Cromwell's campaign, the priest-hunters came to the Bishop's Castle to capture himself and his possessions.
   Treasures of gold and silver were his and the soldiers were very eager to get them. The Bishop decided otherwise however, and rather than let his treasures go to the hands of such vile men, he planned to dispose of them. He gathered them into a cart, and when night fell, he took the cart, drawn by a jennet, to the brink of a deep quarry behind his Castle. He then emptied the contents of the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Dolours Sheridan

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Wilkinstown, Co. Meath

   Informant

   Laurence Crahan

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Wilkinstown, Co. Meath