We spent this March in a town named Youghal. Depending on who you ask, it’s pronounced ‘Y’all’, ‘yoll’ or ‘yowl’ and derives from the Irish word Eochaill (Yew tree). No matter how you say it, it’s a very old settlement in County Cork, 26 miles from Cork City. The stone walls were originally put up in the late thirteenth century and some of them still remain.
These days Youghal is pretty well known in Ireland as a resort town thanks to its long luxurious beaches, cute historical center and surrounding beauty. But there are plenty of little treasures of trivia and historical interest scattered about the town, for those who look. Here are ten of them.
- Moby Dick was Filmed Here
Yes, that Moby Dick. The 1956 version directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. The whole crew met at this pub near the harbor.
A notice in the door reads as follows:
Moby Dick’s Pub
In 1954 Youghal was chosen as the site for the film “Moby Dick”, the greatest sea yarn ever written.
Every morning during its production, the cast & crew would assemble in Paddy Linehan’s Pub, where John Huston would outline his plan for the day.
From our lounges you can view in comfort Youghal Bay, the river Blackwater and the surrounding hills.
In this peaceful setting you can again relive the tale that is Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, see the film and browse through the “Moby Dick” memorabilia.
This renowned establishment, opened in 1880 and has been the Linehan family ever since, making it the oldest family run pub in Youghal.
- Slob Bank
When I first saw this sign, I thought it was some kind of elaborate joke. But no. Slob Bank really is a beauty spot, a 3km waterside walkway where you can admire the Blackwater Estuary and its feathered denizens. Admittedly I only saw oyster catchers, an egret, red-shanks and a curlew, but supposedly even foxes and otters frequent the walkway.
- There was a Pop-Up Witch
Walking along a remnant of the city walls, I saw a plaque and, seeing the word ‘witch’, stopped to read it. Here it is in its entirety:
Another interesting character of the Raleigh Quarter is Florence Newton who lived in Youghal in the 17th century. She was said to terrify those that she came in contact with. Her spells were said to have been so powerful that people would hand over their meat, potatoes or whatever they possessed with little resistance. She was known to vanish into thin air after. The Town Guard, having searched the town, would go to her house, situated down a small lane called the ‘Porcheen’ located beyond the town walls near Cork Hill. Here, they would find her happily pottering or sometimes even in bed.
It is believed now that Florence discovered a series of tunnels under the town originally used by monks to escape during times of attack. These passed through St. Mary’s graveyard and under parts of the town walls allowing her to move around undetected. In 1661 she was tried as a witch after being associated with the enchantment of a young lady. She was imprisoned and tortured for six months until her trial.
During this time strange noises were heard coming from her cell. David Jones, a local man fascinated with her, apparently visited her late one night and following a kiss on the hand through the cell door window fell ill and died two weeks later. Witnesses were brought forth at her trial, the enchantment of Mary Longdon and the death of David Jones were used in the case. She was convicted and sentenced to death. However, there are no records of her execution. Rumour has it that she eventually escaped and to this day the tunnels under the town still echo with the footsteps of the little cloaked lady as she rushes home at night to the ‘Porcheen’.
- Youghal Beach
This is a splendid place to walk in almost every weather. It isn’t exactly fun walking in a high wind with hail spitting in your face, but it is a memorable experience. And the sunsets were incredible.
This beach had a lovely variety of sea-roughened stones, which were of all different colors. A lot of them had markings that were probably made by something like seaworms but looked like star-glyphs. And then there were eroded posts that seemed to suggest some bygone pier. Here is the view from up by the lighthouse:
6. A Real Martyr
Dominic Collins (1566-1602) was born in Youghal to a wealthy merchant family. In 1586 he went to Nantes and worked as a servant and, in 1589, joined the forces of the Catholic League at war against the Huguenots of Brittany. He must have done pretty well because he was soon appointed military governor of territory taken from the Huguenots. From there he went to Spain and entered the service of King Phillip II. In Lent 1598, he met an Irish Jesuit priest named Thomas White, who’d founded the Irish College at Salamanca. Collins entered as a novitiate that December, just as a plague struck the college. He helped nurse the sick and was allowed to profess religious vows February 1601.
Soon afterwards, in his priestly capacity, he joined an expedition to Ireland. Philip III was sending men to assist Red Hugh O’Donnell and Hugh O’Neill in their attempt at revolt against English rule. Their ship arrived in Kinsale December 1 1602, when the city had been under siege by English troops under Lord Mountjoy since October. On December 24, the Irish moved to attack the English but they were no match for the well-drilled professional army and ended up retreating, many being killed in retreat. The Spanish surrendered Kinsale to the English and the Irish chiefs split up.
Collins went with Donnell O’Sullivan Beare south to a Spanish garrison in Dunboy, in Bantry Bay. Unfortunately, one of the terms of the capitulation in Kinsale was that all the Spanish garrisons would be surrendered to the English. For that reason, O’Sullivan and his men had to mine their way into the garrison. The English laid siege to it on June 5. During this time Collins looked after the spiritual needs of the steadily weakening men. On June 18, Dunboy fell into the hands of the English and all but two of the besieged were hanged on the spot. One of the two survivors was Dominic Collins; they had something special in mind for him. They decided they would take him back to his hometown and force him to renounce his religion before executing him in front of his fellow Youghalans. When they got there, though, he suavely addressed the crowd in Irish, Spanish and English telling them that he was there to defend the Catholic faith and he was quite happy to die in doing so. The spot where he was subsequently hanged is on the main street, and a plaque commemorates the occasion. Approval for Collins’ beatification as a martyr was approved in 1992.
5. The Clock Gate
The Clock Gate was built in 1777 on the site of Trinity Castle Gate (or Iron Gate), Trinity Castle Gate, one of the five original gates of the walled town. The original began to collapse in the early 1770s and was replaced by the five-storey gated tower with clock cupola on top. This is one of the most distinctive landmarks in the town.
4. The Quakers
The Religious Society of Friends still have a physical presence in Youghal, even if it is mainly an historical one. There’s an old alms house and a building that was set up as a soup kitchen for famine relief in the mid-nineteenth century.
Quakerism was first brought to Cork by Elizabeth Smith and Elizabeth Fletcher in 1655, quite soon after Quakerism was started in the North of England in 1652.
The Youghal Quakers are particularly remembered for their humane response to the famine. When they realized how serious it was, in 1846 they set up a famine relief committee and offered food to the needy, no strings attached. This was in contrast to the Crown-controlled Workhouses, where families were separated and required to live in cramped conditions and to work hard in order to receive any aid at all.
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, converted to Quakerism in Cork, which is only 26 miles from Youghal.
The suffragist Anna Haslem, born in Youghal in 1829, was another noted Quaker. She helped in soup kitchens and set up cottage industries for local women. Her husband, Thomas Haslam, was a feminist theorist and they were pretty much the most adorable couple ever.
3. The Lighthouse and Moll Goggins
Probably the most distinctive building in Youghal is the lighthouse. Nearby is a platform where a woman named Moll Goggins stood every day, looking out to sea waiting for her fiance to return. Her fiance was a sailor and never did return, but she kept going to that spot and waiting, every day for so long that the locals named the spot for her.
2. The Cockburns of that Ilk
Some of the best journalists of recent times, the three brothers Alexander, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, grew up in Youghal.
Alexander wrote at least nineteen books and was known for being the co-editor of the political magazine CounterPunch.
Andrew has written several books and dozens of articles, and he’s produced many documentary films.
Patrick has written three books on Iraq and a memoir called The Broken Boy (2005), about growing up in 1950’s Ireland and contracting polio.
- Windmill Hill
Youghal is a very long town, mainly built on the top of a ridge, and it also has some incredibly steep bits. I didn’t know, before renting our house, that it was at the top of a cliff. My hometown, Dunedin, once boasted that Baldwin Street was the steepest street in the world. That’s since been surpassed by Fford Pen Llech in Harlech, Wales. I would say that Youghal’s Windmill Hill gives both of them a run for their money. ‘Windmill Hill,’ a local woman told us, ‘is murder.’ And, after carrying a backpack full of groceries up it, I am inclined to agree. Ironman Ireland was held here in 2019, possibly on the strength of Windmill Hill alone. It was supposed to go ahead in 2020 but got cancelled. All going well, it will happen again in 2021.
