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AGHER

CO. MEATH · IE

Agher
Achadh Eaglais, Co. Meath

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Achadh Eaglais · Co. Meath

The parish where Jonathan Swift was rector, with a stained-glass window that survived a castle fire to get here.

Agher is a small rural parish in south Meath, about three kilometres southwest of Summerhill in the barony of Upper Deece. The name is Achadh Eaglais, the field of the church, and the church is the reason anyone knows the place. There is no village centre to speak of - a church, a graveyard, scattered farms, and the gently undulating loam that an old gazetteer described as one-third tillage and the rest good grazing, with a hundred acres of bog. In the 1830s the parish held about 360 people. It is quieter than that now.

Jonathan Swift, the satirist and clergyman, was rector here from 1699 until his death in 1745, holding Agher alongside the neighbouring livings of Laracor and Rathbeggan. He was based mostly at Laracor near Trim, but Agher was his on paper for nearly half a century while London argued over A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. The contradiction - a London literary lion holding a country parish in agricultural Meath - is the whole story of the place.

The present church was built in 1804, paid for largely by the local landowner Samuel Winter, who gave £450 and then loaned a further £168 to cover the shortfall. It was rebuilt in 1902. Inside is the thing worth the trip: a window painted on glass in 1770 by the Dublin artisan Thomas Jervais, showing St Paul preaching to the Athenians on Mars Hill, the design lifted from a Raphael cartoon. It is the second-earliest known piece of Irish-made stained glass, and it did not start here. It hung in the private chapel at Dangan Castle, the childhood home of the Duke of Wellington, until a fire gutted that house in 1809. The O'Connor family, then living at Dangan, gave the window to Agher. It has been here ever since, and it is one of the oldest stained-glass windows still in its place in Ireland.

Come for the church and the window, and understand what you are coming to: a quiet parish, not a destination with services. The Winter family seat, Agher House, stood on a 350-acre demesne south of Summerhill until its ruins were cleared in the mid-1940s and the shell was blown up in 1947. There is no pub, no shop, no place to stay in Agher itself. For all of that you go up the road to Summerhill, and Trim is a short drive northwest.

Population

A rural parish, a few hundred (360 recorded in the 1830s)

Founded

Church built 1804, rebuilt 1902; parish records to 1407

Coords

53.4597° N, 6.7686° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 Swift's parish

Jonathan Swift was rector here, 1699 to 1745.

Swift held the living of Agher along with Laracor and Rathbeggan from 1699 until his death in 1745. Nearly half a century in a tiny Meath parish while his London reputation grew.

Stories & lore → 02 The window

St Paul preaching to the Athenians.

Painted on glass by Dublin artisan Thomas Jervais in 1770 - the second-earliest known piece of Irish-made stained glass. It came from the chapel at Dangan Castle, the Duke of Wellington's childhood home, after a fire there in 1809.

Stories & lore → 03 The land

Tillage and grazing, southwest of Summerhill.

Gently undulating loam in the barony of Upper Deece, about three kilometres southwest of Summerhill. The Winter family estate once dominated the parish; the big house is gone.

Getting there →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

Rector, 1699 to 1745

Jonathan Swift at Agher

Swift was appointed to the union of Agher, Laracor and Rathbeggan in 1699 and held it until he died in 1745. He lived mostly at Laracor, a few miles north near Trim, but Agher was part of his charge for the whole of that span. He was writing the work that made him - A Tale of a Tub in 1704, Gulliver's Travels in 1726, A Modest Proposal in 1729 - while drawing the income of three small Meath parishes. The church is small. The parish is smaller. That a man whose satire shook London held this quiet living for forty-six years is the kind of fact that makes a flat field worth standing in.

Thomas Jervais, painted 1770

The Jervais window and the Dangan fire

The east window in Agher church is not leaded stained glass in the usual sense - it is enamel painted on glass, executed in Dublin by Thomas Jervais in 1770, after a Raphael cartoon of St Paul preaching to the Athenians. It is reckoned the second-earliest known piece of Irish-made stained glass, and Jervais is a rare name: only a handful of his monumental works survive, including the Seven Virtues window at New College, Oxford, designed by Joshua Reynolds. The Agher window was made for the private chapel at nearby Dangan Castle, the childhood home of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. When Dangan burned in 1809 the window survived, and the O'Connor family who were then occupying the castle presented it to Agher church. The York Glaziers Trust examined it in 2014, found the leads and glazing in a perilous state, and it was conserved with protective glazing. It remains the reason to come.

Agher House, demolished 1947

The Winters and the vanished house

The parish was dominated for two centuries by the Winter family. Samuel Winter inherited the combined Winter and Pratt estates in 1771 - lands across Meath, Cavan and Westmeath - and set about rebuilding Agher House from 1776, on a demesne of about 350 acres with gardens, orchards and outhouses. It was Winter who paid for the new church in 1804. The estate was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the early 1930s, the house fell into ruin, and in 1947 what was left was brought down by a controlled explosion, the rubble pushed into the basement. A modern house stands near the site. The Winter graves are in the churchyard, along with members of the O'Higgins family. There is nothing of the great house left to see, which is its own kind of Meath story.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

The church and graveyard There is no waymarked trail at Agher. What there is, is the church, the window inside it, and the old graveyard with the Winter and O'Higgins headstones. Check locally or with the Church of Ireland parish for access to view the window. Combine it with the quiet lanes of the parish on foot if the weather holds.

Short strolldistance

30 minutestime

Summerhill demesne walks For an actual walk, go three kilometres northeast to Summerhill, the planned 18th-century village with its long green and the site of the Battle of Dungan's Hill (1647). Far more to put under your feet there than at Agher itself.

Variesdistance

1 hour plustime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

South Meath at its greenest, the lanes dry, the light good for the window if you can get inside the church. The best time to make a quiet detour like this one.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the fields in full tillage. Still no services in Agher - bring what you need or stop in Summerhill.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Clear, quiet, and the harvest off the land. A good time for a churchyard-and-back kind of visit.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, muddy lanes, and the church will likely be locked. Arrange access ahead or wait for brighter months.

◐ 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.

Looking for a village

Agher is a parish, not a village with a main street. There is no centre, no pub, no shop. If you arrive expecting a place to wander, you will be standing at a church in a field. That can be exactly the point, but know it before you turn off the road.

Hunting for the big house

Agher House was demolished by explosion in 1947 and the rubble pushed into its own basement. There is nothing to see. The demesne is farmland. Don't go looking for ruins that aren't there.

Turning up and expecting the church open

The Jervais window is the whole reason to come, and the church is not staffed for visitors. Contact the Church of Ireland parish ahead to arrange to see it, or you may find a locked door and a long drive back.

Getting there.

By car

From Summerhill, about 3 km southwest on the local roads off the R158. From Trim, roughly 12 km southeast by the R158 and local roads. Agher is a rural parish reached by minor roads, with no services on site - fuel up and stock up in Summerhill or Trim first.

By bus

No direct service to Agher. Local Link route 115C runs Ballivor to Kilcock via Summerhill, with a Bus Eireann connection to Dublin at Kilcock; the MH111 links Summerhill to Trim and Navan on certain days. You will need a car or taxi for the last stretch to Agher.

By train

Nearest station is Enfield, about 15 km southwest, on the Dublin Connolly to Sligo line (with Connolly to Longford commuter services). No public transport from the station to Agher - hire a car or taxi.