Ballyknockan or Ballynockan ( ; ) is a village and

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Ballyknockan is situated on the western edge of a large granite band extending from Dublin Bay to County Carlow. Ballyknockan village is located above sea level and is around from Dublin.

History

Commercial granite quarries were first opened in the early 1820s which lead to the development of the village. Many of the first workers came from nearby

Manor Kilbride Kilbride (), or Manor Kilbride, is a village, civil parish and electoral division in County Wicklow, Ireland, located at the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains in the barony of Talbotstown Lower. Geography Manor Kilbride village is situ ...

and the Golden Hill quarry there. According to an Ordnance survey of 1838, at the time almost half of the population of 400 were employed in the quarries. Ballyknockan was an area of anti-landlord agitation during the

Land War The Land War () was a period of agrarian agitation in rural History of Ireland (1801–1923), Ireland (then wholly part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom) that began in 1879. It may refer specifically to the firs ...

. In 1887, a widow and her family were to be evicted from their home. Men employed by her landlord knocked the roof of her house and evicted the family while they were at mass. A law at the time stated that if a house was built within a day with smoke coming out of the chimney, the occupants couldn’t be evicted. The community worked together and built a house in a day for them and the fire was lit, ensuring they could not be evicted. A plaque commemorating the event can be seen on the remains of the ruined cottage. In 1940 the village of Balinahown was completely flooded and parts of the surrounding villages of

Valleymount Valleymount ( or ''An Chrois'') is a small village in western County Wicklow, Ireland. The name 'Valleymount' does not appear before 1839. Previously, the village was known as 'the Cross of Ballymore' or simply 'the Cross', with 'cross' referrin ...

and Lacken were also flooded to make way for the

Poulaphouca Reservoir Poulaphouca Reservoir, officially Pollaphuca (), is an active reservoir (for both water supply and electricity generation) and area of wild bird conservation in west County Wicklow, Ireland named after the Poulaphouca waterfall on its south-wes ...

which spans out over across the land. Since then, the village overlooks the reservoir that provides water to thousands of Dublin homes and creates electricity, while also offering many water pursuits such as fishing, sailing, windsurfing, boating, and leisure cruising and canoeing. Ballyknockan hosted KnockanStockan, an independent music festival which was held annually each summer from 2007 until 2019.

Filming location

The following films have been filmed in part in Ballyknockan: * '' Captain Boycott'' (1947)

References

{{County Wicklow Towns and villages in County Wicklow

History

Filming location

See also

Further reading

References