PURE MILE ROUNDWOOD
Malone's Lane
Malone’s Lane links to the now main road from Roundwood to Glendalough, the R755. At one point in time it was not a through road.
The PURE Mile plays an important role in recording local names. Malone’s Lane is one of the many field and local road names erected.
These names are an integral part of our culture providing a living record not just of the topography of the land, but of the families who farm or have farmed it, the monuments, the plants and animals that inhabit it, the local history and folklore and often the Irish language.
At the junction of Malone’s Lane with the Lough Dan road directional signage was erected to assist walkers on the Wicklow Way.
On the 20th of March 1932, Liam Price mentioned that he had recorded 'balluan stones' in Baltynanima and recorded his conversation with a Mr John Malone – a grandfather of Pat Malone, farmer and landowner on our Pure Mile.
The Liam Price notebooks: The placenames, antiquities and topography of County Wicklow, edited by Christiaan Corlett & Mairead Weaver. Published by the Department of the Environment, Dublin, 2002. Volume 1, Page 152
Price also photographed an outhouse on Malone’s farm at Baltynanima and refers to some local place names.
The Dome
In weekends The Dome opens on Malone's Lane. This charming place sells coffee and tea, freshly baked goods, plants and vegetables.
Children were encouraged to interview their elderly relatives and neighbours to record some of their family history and local folklore. Ella Davis interviewed her grandfather Pat Malone.
Interview with Pat Malone 14/08/2017 by Ella Davis
Baltynanima
Roundwood
County Wicklow
Have you always lived here in Baltynanima?
Yes was born here in 1940.
Did your Parents live here?
My father Joe was born here in 1900 and my mother Julia Magee was from Calary. When I got married I built a house next to my parents’ farm in Baltynanima.
What is the earliest things you remember about living here?
The 1947 snow. I remember Ned Brady coming down from the top of Shinnah Lane, to get hay for his cows and my brother Sean and myself dragged the hay to the cross roads. We were only seven and eight. He then put it on his back and walked through the field to his farm on top of Shinnah Lane.
How did you get to School?
I started school in Lough Dan School at the age of five. I walked with my older brother Sean and Johnny Hennessey, who lived at the top of the road in the house which Ann Gaffney now lives in. It took up to half hour to walk to school. After a couple of years my two sisters Ronnie and Sheila joined us on the walk to school.
Did you have jobs to do as a child?
I had to look after ewes during lambing season before I went to school and do chores on the farm, feeding lambs, and gathering potatoes, thinning turnips.
What did you play with or what were your Hobbies?
My favourite toy was a tin monkey on a string and from the age of ten I joined the athletics club at Keenan’s Pavilion, Roundwood (in what is now the Coach House car park). It was run by Christy Brennan and Mick Rourke. As I got older I competed in walking races and the high jump - they were my favourite.
Have you a funny story or a great memory of living here?
One day I was out picking potatoes with my dad and brother Sean, when I decided I had enough of farming and went home, told my Mum I wanted to be a school teacher. She listened to me, said "have a cup of tea and go back out and finish the potatoes, we will talk about it later". Here I am 78 years old and still farming!
I remember in the 50’s picking stones in the field to repair the holes in the lane, which was a dirt track then and has always been known as Malone’s lane.
This is all Pat could remember about the Poem about Brout’s bulb farm by Bill Hennessy:
I met with Napper Tandy
He took me by the hand
He asked me where Brout’s onions were
And I told him in Lough Dan
Bill Hennessy was an army man in the First World War. He lived in Ann Gaffney’s House. He had a family of five, Francis, Billy, Paddy, Matty and Johnny. Johnny is the only one still alive and lives in England. Francis is buried in Roundwood Cemetery and was married to John Shanley.