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KILBRICKEN

CO. LAOIS · IE

Kilbricken
Cill Bhriocáin, Co. Laois

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Cill Bhriocáin · Co. Laois

A railway hamlet between Mountrath and Castletown. The name means Briocan's church, the old station is derelict, and the village gave the British Army a Victoria Cross.

Kilbricken is a hamlet in mid-Laois, on the Dublin to Cork railway line between Mountrath and Castletown. The name is Cill Bhriocain, the church of Briocan - an early saint long since faded from memory. The church the name refers to is gone. What you find now is a scatter of houses, the surrounding farmland, the railway running through, and one pub.

It is not a village in the way Abbeyleix or Mountrath are villages. There is no main street, no square, no shop. The two things that put Kilbricken on a map are both worth a paragraph: a stone railway station that closed in the 1970s and is now a private house slowly going derelict, and the fact that a man born here in 1845 was among the first two soldiers over the wall at Magdala in 1868 and came home with a Victoria Cross.

If you are passing on the back roads between Mountrath and Abbeyleix, the real reason to stop is a couple of kilometres east at Cromogue: a holy well dedicated to Saint Fintan, a bullaun stone, and a medieval church ruin in a tangle of narrow lanes. That is the heritage. The rest is quiet farmland and a railway that does not stop here any more.

Population

A hamlet, a few dozen people

Coords

52.9617° N, 7.4622° W

01 / 06

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Kilbricken Inn

The one pub, rural local

Country pub

Beside the old Mountrath and Castletown station. This is the pub in Kilbricken - there is no other, and no shop either. A rural roadside local rather than a destination. Ring ahead or check opening before you make a journey of it; small country pubs keep their own hours.

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

James Bergin VC, 1845-1880

The man who took Magdala

James Bergin was born at Kilbricken on 29 June 1845, in what was then Queen's County. He joined the British Army and was a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot - later the Duke of Wellington's Regiment - during the Abyssinia Expedition of 1868. On 13 April that year, at the assault on Magdala in what is now Ethiopia, the head of the attacking column was held up at the gate. A small party broke away, climbed a cliff, forced a wall and a thorn fence and turned the defenders. Bergin and Drummer Michael Magner were the first two men into the fortress. Both were awarded the Victoria Cross for it. Bergin died at Poona in British India in 1880, aged 35. His medal is now in the Duke of Wellington's Regimental Museum at Halifax in Yorkshire. A boy from a Laois railway hamlet, and one of the few from this corner of the county to carry that decoration home.

Open 1848, closed 1976

Mountrath and Castletown station

The station that served Mountrath and Castletown actually stood here at Kilbricken, on the Great Southern and Western Railway line. It opened on 1 September 1848 and ran for 127 years. Goods traffic stopped on 3 November 1975 and the station closed altogether on 6 September 1976. The trains on the Dublin to Cork line still pass through at speed, but they do not stop. The stone-built station house survives beside the track, privately owned and going quietly to ruin. It is the most substantial old building in the place and the clearest evidence that Kilbricken once mattered to somebody timetabling a railway.

A holy well, a bullaun, a ruined church

Saint Fintan's well at Cromogue

About three and a half kilometres east of Kilbricken, in the maze of small lanes between Mountrath and Abbeyleix, is the holy well of Saint Fintan at Cromogue. It sits in a small landscaped close under a large tree, well kept and clearly still visited, with clear spring water and a bullaun stone by the little stream that runs off the site. Beside it stands the ruin of a church dedicated to Fintan, early medieval in origin though most of what stands is later. Fintan is the saint most associated with Laois - he is said to have founded the monastery at Clonenagh near Mountrath around 548 - and an old road, a togher, is said to have run from this well to Clonenagh. It is the one piece of genuine antiquity within easy reach of the hamlet, and almost nobody is ever there.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Cromogue holy well and church Three and a half kilometres east through the lanes. Park considerately - these are narrow farm roads - and walk into the well close and the church ruin. The bullaun stone and the stream are the detail. Wet underfoot after rain. Bring the map; the lanes between Mountrath and Abbeyleix are a labyrinth and signposting is thin.

Short walk on site, drive to reach itdistance

30 minutestime

The old station and back roads There is no waymarked trail at Kilbricken. What there is, is quiet country road past the derelict station building and out through farmland. Good for a leg-stretch if you are breaking a drive. Watch the trains: the Dublin-Cork line runs right through and the crossings deserve respect.

A couple of kilometresdistance

30-45 minutestime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Green fields, quiet lanes, the Cromogue well at its best under fresh leaf.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long light for picking your way through the back roads to the well and the station.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Harvest light over the farmland, the most photogenic season here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, no facilities, muddy lanes. Bring everything you need and do not rely on finding anything open.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village

Kilbricken is a hamlet, not a village. No main street, no square, no shop. One pub, a ruined station and a holy well a few kilometres off. Come for the quiet and the heritage detour, not for somewhere to spend an afternoon.

Looking for the church the name refers to

Cill Bhriocain means the church of Briocan, but that church is long gone. The medieval ruin worth seeing is Saint Fintan's at Cromogue, a few kilometres east, and that is a different dedication entirely. Do not go hunting a Briocan church in the hamlet itself; there is nothing to find.

Getting there.

By car

Mid-Laois between Mountrath and Castletown, just off the back roads south of the N7/M7 corridor. Reached on minor roads; not on a main route. Roughly 10 minutes from Mountrath, 15 from Abbeyleix.

By bus

Not directly served by scheduled bus. Nearest services run through Mountrath and Portlaoise; Local Link covers parts of rural Laois. Check Local Link Laois Offaly for the nearest stop.

By train

The Dublin to Cork line runs through Kilbricken but no trains stop here - the station closed in 1976. The nearest stop is Portlaoise, on the same line, about 20 minutes by car.