STRAND ROAD

By Veroni Burns Herrmann

23-07-2005

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Off the Strand Road (sea-side) was St Marnock’s Well, approached by sixteen stone steps. To the northern side of the well a willow tree that bent towards the sea on the approach of a storm.

Nearby a stone pillar covered with Ogham inscriptions and some unknown symbols. Remains of this were mixed into the stone of the well when it was closed 1855 and a pump constructed over it.

Further up the Strand Road you pass Blackberry Lane , leading to Carrickhill. Once covered

with blackberry bushes and inhabited by wild bats,(off which they say still reside in the locality).

Over the hill on Strand Road is the famous ‘Velvet Strand’ where a Martello Tower stands,

(with a small quay constructed around one hundred years ago for landing fish)

An area then known as Tobermaclaney – Maclaney’s well, a depression in the ground

beside the tower, marks the site of the old well. Affected by drainage operations it still springs up under the road to this day causing mini-floods.

From here you can view the ‘Velvet Strand’ and its massive stretch of beach framed by white brushed surf on a royal blue sea. Further out the coast you can see Lambay Island with its coastguard’s cottages - ( Bearings Island ) – in the ownership of the Bearings Bank family.

In front, Irelands Eye, a bird sanctuary with the peninsula of Howth in the background, framed by the Dublin and Wicklow mountains.