POWERSCOURT, a parish, in the barony of RATHDOWN, county of WICKLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (W. S. W.) from Bray, on the road from Dublin city, through the Scalp, to Roundwood; containing, with the town of Enniskerry. This place, which in the ecclesiastical records is called Stagonil, and in other authorities Templebeacon, takes its present name from the De la Poer family, to whom it was conveyed by marriage with the daughter of Milo de Cogan, one of the followers of Strongbow, who built a castle here to protect his territories from the incursions of the mountain septs of the surrounding district.
The castle was, in 1535, surprised and taken by the Byrnes and O'Tooles, but was soon recovered by the English and subsequently granted by Hen. VIII. to a branch of the Talbot family, from whom it was taken, in 1556, by the Kavanaghs and garrisoned with 140 of that sept; but after an obstinate resistance it was taken by Sir George Stanley, and the garrison were sent prisoners to Dublin, where 74 of them were executed. In 1609, Jas. I. granted the castle and all the lands of Fercullen, with the exception of 1000 acres of the parish, now belonging to the Earl of Rathdown, to Sir Richard Winfield, ancestor of the present Lord Powerscourt, as a reward for his services in suppressing a rebellion in Ulster raised by Sir Cabin O'Dogherty and Sir Nial O'Donell, in 1608, of whom the former was killed in the field, and the latter made prisoner in his camp: the lands were soon afterwards erected into a manor, and in 1615 the proprietor was created Viscount Powerscourt.
The Glen of the Waterfall, to which the approach is through the deer-park, is embosomed in mountains clothed almost to their summit with woody of oak; emerging from these the cataract is seen in all its picturesque grandeur, precipitating its wafers in an unbroken volume from a height of more than 300 feet, with scarcely any interruption from projecting crags, into a chasm at its base between lofty detached masses of rock. When not augmented by continued rains, the sheet of descending water is clear and transparent, and the face of the precipice is distinctly seen; but after heavy falls of rain it descends with tumultuous violence, and the whiteness of the foam forms a striking contrast with the dark foliage of the surrounding woods.
Powerscourt, the splendid seate of Viscount Powerscourt, is a spacious mansion of hewn granite with two fronts, one consisting of a centre with a portico supporting a pediment, in the tympanum of which are the family arms, and of two wings, each terminating in an obelisk supporting the crest; the other front has at each extremity a circular tower, surmounted by a cupola and ogee dome. The interior contains many stately apartments, among which are a noble hall 80 feet long and 40 feet wide, richly decorated; a spacious ball-room of equal dimensions, with galleries on each side, supported on lofty fluted columns, and sumptuously embellished; the floor is of chestnut wood highly polished and inlaid, and the whole displays much beauty of arrangement and elegance of decoration. In this room King Geo. IY. was entertained at dinner by the late Viscount; the splendid chair of state provided for his use on that occasion is still preserved.
The scenery here is wildly romantic; a picturesque wooden bridge over a stream :that runs from the foot of the waterfall leads to a banqueting-room commanding a fine view of the glen. The stream in this part of its course is called the Glenistorean, but meeting on the outside of the deer-park with another from Glencree, it takes that name, and after flowing through a succession of richly cultivated demesnes assumes the appellation of the Dargle river on its approach to the celebrated glen of the same name. The entrance to the upper end of this very remarkable glen is about a quarter of a mile from Enniskerry, and to the lower end about two miles from Bray. The glen itself is about a mile in lengthy enclosed on both sides with towering precipices clothed to their summits with woods of oak, darkening the narrow vale at their base, and occasionally broken by stupendous masses of bare and rugged rock, which rise perpendicularly through the luxuriant foliage. Confined between its rugged bounded and obstructed in its course by fragments of loosened rocks, the Dargle river rushes through the glen with all the noise and impetuosity of a torrent.
The scenery of the parish, on the side opposite to that of Powerscourt and the Dargle river, abounds with features of impressive character; the valley of Glencree forms a noble vista, four miles in length, enclosed on thatch side by barren and rugged mountains, and terminating with the lofty mountains of Kippure, impending over Lough Bray, below which were the Glencree barracks, a fine range if buildings, erected by Government after the disturbances of 1798, and purchased by. Lord Powerscourt in 1834.
The scenery around Lough Bray is pleasingly romantic : there are an upper and a lower lake; the lower, which is the larger, comprises 37 acres, and is near the summit of the mountain, enclosed on one side by lofty and precipitous rocks, and on the other by a steep declivity; this district is much frequented by visitors from Dublin; the approach is by the military road, which joins the robed from Rathfarnham. The Djouce mountain, which hits an elevation of 2392 feet above the level of the sea: is in the parish, and forms a prominent feature in the numerous varieties of its mountain scenery. The lands not in demesne are chiefly under tillage; the soil is a light limestone gravel, yielding good crops, and the system of agriculture Improved; turf is procured in abundance on the mountains, and there are several quarries of good granite.
The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Dublin, constituting the corps of the prebend of Stagonil in the cathedral of St. Patrick, and in the patronage of the Archbishop; the prebend was instituted in 1303, when it was charged with the payment of all per annum to the economy fund of the cathedral : it had formerly two dependent chapels, situated respectively at Kilruddery and Kilcroney; the latter, in the time of Archbishop Alan, was claimed by the monks of St. Mary's Abbey, near Dublin. In 1831, some townlands of this parish were separated from it by the act of the 7th and 8th of Geo. IV., to form the newly erected parish of Calary.
CALARY parish was formed out of the several parishes of Kilmacanogue, Kilcoole, Derralossory, Newcastle, and Powerscourt, In 1831, under the provisions of an act of the 7th and 8th of Geo. IV. it is situated in the rugged table lands which extend southward from the great Sugar Loaf mountain to the vicinity of Roundwood; and lies embosomed between the lower range of hills among which the Downs hill claim pre-eminence, and the more elevated chain of heights above which the lofty Djouce rises in towering grandeur. It comprehends a dreary tract of pour elevated land, bog, and barren mountain, extending on the east to the glen of the Downs and on the west to Luggelaw. The Sugar Loaf mountain rises to the height of 2000 feet above the level of the sea; on the western side its height is apparently diminished by the low range called the Long Hill which conceals its base. The Djouce mountain has an elevation of 2392 feet, and is conspicuous in every extended view in the north part of the country. The easiest ascent to the summit of this stupendous mass is from the waterfall at Powerscourt. The new line of road from Bray to Roundwood, and the Long hill road from Enniskerry to the same place, pass through the parish; but the latter is little used, as there is a branch communicating with the former, on which Major Beresford has built a very neat hotel. The river Liffey has its source near the War hill, in this parish.
church, a handsome modern edifices nearly in the centre of the parish, and within the Powerscourt demesne, was enlarged in 1820, at an expense of £1000, advanced on loan from the late Board of First Fruits; the church-yard contains many interesting monumental inscriptions. In the Roman Catholic divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Bray : the chapel, at Curtlestown, is a plain building, and service is also performed in a barn every Sunday.