Memories of the Navvy Bank in Dundalk

A friend of mine who lives in the Point Road area of Town tells me that the Navvy Bank Walkway has been crowded with people taking advantage of the permission to exercise within two kilometers of their homes during the fine weather that has persisted over Easter Week. Some nearby residents are not too happy about this influx but, presumably, they are all citizens of Dundalk and entitled to be there, provided they observe 'social distancing' that is mandatory during the current Corvid 19 pandemic!

The problem is that the Navvy is the only decent stretch of pedestrianised walkway of any great length on the eastern side of Dundalk and is not really capable of providing spaced-out movement of people in the present conditions!

Most Dundalk people have great pride in the Navvy Bank amenity and it is very interesting to reflect how it came to be there in the first place! You see, up to 180 years ago this walkway did not exist and the tide came right up to the Point Road which, at the time, was known as the Shore Road leading down to Soldiers Point. The old name then transferred to the cul-de-sac road that leads from the Red Barns Road down to the Sea Rampart which runs from the Soldiers Point over to the Loakers at the north end of Blackrock. The old Shore Road then became known as the Upper and Lower Point Road.

There have been numerous efforts to extend the Bay Walkway from the back of the Coast Guards houses, along the Sea Rampart, and to extend it across the Loakers to McGuigan's Rock. This would be a great development but money to carry out this work has always been a difficulty. Much research has been carried out on the ecology of the salt marsh in front of the Sea Rampart since the beginning of the present century and I am told that there has been promises recently of money from central government to start work on the development of this amenity. The present pandemic, however, must have thrown all this into doubt and I fear that many, even much younger than me, will not now see it happen in their lifetime.

The origins of the name

To get back to the origins of the existing Navvy Bank, many people have asked me how did the embankment along the Castletown Estuary acquire this odd sounding name for an Irish seafront structure? Local historians Allan B. Swan and Harold O'Sullivan have written extensively on the development of the Port of Dundalk but neither of them have stated specifically where this name came from! The best explanation I have heard comes from Charlie McCarthy, retired Dundalk Harbour Commissioners' Boatman, who tells it was constructed by an engineer named McCormack from Bristol who brought men who had worked on building canals in England to build the structure and, according to local tradition, he had always referred to his men as 'Navvies'. The name 'Navvy' for men who built canals in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century comes from an abbreviation of the word 'navigator' who was a person that guided the path of the waterways (as well, ,of course, as the ordinary meaning of a person who steered a vessel). Many of these men, contrary to popular belief, were highly skilled stone masons and other tradesmen; not just labourers. Most of them came from Ireland from a time long before the deprivations of the Great Famine.

I am sure that many of these men must also have come from the local area when the work started in 1840. Charlie tells me that the local tradition is that the stone for the facing of the embankment came from a quarry at Haggardstown, brought to the Dundalk quays by local farmers using horses and carts. I have also heard that much of the larger stones used for in-filling were dredged up from an ancient causeway that ran across the Estuary from Soldiers Point to a point east of Tippings Quay at Bellurgan. This causeway was known from the time of Tain story as Áth Lathan (the Broad Ford). Charlie was not able to confirm this story but it is true that the large boulders from it were removed from the bed of the river about this time.

Padraic ua Dubhthaigh in his Book of Dundalk writes that in 1837 – 'The affairs of the Harbour were regularised by the passing of an Act (by the Westminster Parliament) providing for the election of Harbour Commissioners. Following this reform, an extensive scheme of improvement was entered into the design of Sir John MacNeill (the famous railway engineer who lived just across the river at Mount Pleasant House). This work included the building of an embankment from Soldiers Point to the Steampacket Quay (which came to be known as the Navvy Bank). The improvements occupied about eight years, from 1840 to 1848, and cost about £22,000.'

Another piece of interesting information provided by Charlie McCarthy is that the land on which the Navvy Bank was constructed was leased to the newly formed Dundalk Harbour Commissioners in 1837 by the 3rd Earl of Roden, Robert Jocelyn. Charlie tells me that he has seen this lease and that one of the terms of it requires that 'the amenity should be available to the townspeople of Dundalk'. Another stipulation was that the Commissioners should erect public seating along the walkway and Charlie says that the Commissioners had maintained seven seats that are still there.

The Harbour Commissioners were abolished about twenty years ago and the running of the Port given over to a new Port company. This company itself went out of existence about ten years ago and the running of the Port was handed over to the Dublin Port Authority. I do not know what authority now has the responsibility for the maintenance of the Navvy Bank but it may be the Louth County Council.

There is a lot more I could write about the Navvy Bank and its importance to the Town of Dundalk but do not have the space this week. Hopefully, I will be around to return to its story at a later date. In the meantime, I trust that my readers will enjoy continued sunshine over the 'Lockdown' period.