THE LOST ABBEY Traditional Geocache
Cuilcagh: The cache owner is not responding to issues with this geocache, so I must regretfully archive it.
Please note that if geocaches are archived by a reviewer or Geocaching HQ for lack of maintenance, they are not eligible for unarchival.
Cuilcagh - Community Volunteer Reviewer for Geocaching HQ (Ireland)
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THE LOST ABBEY
This is a first cache placed by FROGDOGDIVER and my sons CURLY TARTAN & LITTLE PEST. It is hidden in a forgotten area of historic importance being an early Medieval Ecclesiastical site. My wife used to play here as a child coming from the town of Crumlin. She said it was always known locally as the abbey. I have researched some of the history behind the area and supplied it here for those who want to know a bit more about the area. The site sits on privately owned farmland overlooked by the farmer’s house named Abbey View. Full consent of the landowner has been given though it helped he was a friend of my father in law. I would ask that anyone visiting the cache site gives due regard to the fact that this is a working farm and please ensure the gate from the road to the cache site is secured on entering the area and leaving. Please do not drop any litter that could cause harm to farm animals though as Geocachers I know most if not all are a responsible lot. Please note that the ground can be wet and at times boggy depending on weather and recent rainfall so please wear appropriate footwear. There can at times be cattle in this field so use extreme caution on the transit to the cache location which should be animal free. My youngest boy is 4 and the terrain was suitable for him with adult help. Please take care replacing the cache and its camouflage as dog walking muggles and some drinking local youth muggles have been recently sighted in this area. The land owner remembers seeing gravestones at the site some years ago but sadly he thinks they were taken and possibly thrown in the river or destroyed as they cannot be seen now. Burials though were thought to have taken place here at least by a hardy few up until the early part of the 20th century though there are no visible signs of this. I hope you enjoy the cache which is a large ammo container. Please park at the suggested parking spot which is only a very short walk away at the bridge. The gate to the cache site is directly opposite the house and as this is a working farm the entrance can get congested. There is a FTF badge for the first visitor. Our first geocoin has also been released to travel in this cache. Happy caching.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CRUMLIN OR CAMLIN
The Camlin Medieval Graveyard and Church ruins are listed on the Northern Ireland sites and monuments record as a scheduled site. They lie on private land on a ridge overlooking the River Crumlin. The graveyard is enclosed by a low field bank with outer ditch & is roughly rectangular. The Church structure is set fairly centrally & orientated NE/SW, 22m x 6.6m internally. Some rough loose stones lie around within the graveyard & may be fallen wall stones. There are no visible headstones. The East gable of the church survives fairly intact with a central window. The side walls have alcoves on each side, with rounded heads. The West gable wall is only about half its original height & ivy covered.
The earliest record of this church is that given in the Taxation of the Dioceses, compiled in the year 1306.
“The Church of Camelyn” Bishop Reeves reportedly stated, "It is so called from a tortuous stream" (the crooked line). The Parish is now called Crumlin from "Crum-gleann" (the crooked glen). The Ordnance Survey places Camlin Church in the townland of Ballydonaghy though it can show on older maps preserving the old name "Bally-camlin," which was a small townland.
The Church of Camlin is a venerable ruin, overgrown with ivy, and is situated at the verge of the Parish, on a steep bank overhanging the Crumlin river, being distant about a quarter of a mile from the town. It is 77 feet long and 23 feet wide. Although the present floor is on a level with the adjacent ground, the original one appears to have been much beneath it. Tradition relates that this church was destroyed in the wars of James II. It appears that his forces often occupied churches as garrisons. It is well known that the Church of Magheramesk, in a neighbouring parish, was demolished, in order to dislodge a body of his Irish troops, who had stationed themselves in it for the purpose of annoying an English garrison in that quarter. Crumlin Church must also have been destroyed at that time, and not in the Cromwellian wars, since it appears by the register of the Diocese of Connor, that an ordination was held in it on the 1st of December, 1661 (Cromwell died 1658), by the celebrated Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor, Chaplain to King Charles I., who died at Lisburn, Aug. 13, 1667. The person admitted to the order of Deacon on that occasion was Andrew Aiton.
After its destruction the people of Camlin attended Glenavy Parish Church, coming down the lane over the stepping stones in the river into the churchyard. The right to do so was disputed in 1891, but at the Assizes the Judge upheld the parishioners' claim, as a "Public Right of Way."
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Snpvat jnyy jvgu onpx gb gur evire