Boystown: Quaker graveyard, house history and Neolithic traces

Boystown can be understood through several distinct historical connections: a restored Quaker graveyard, a late Georgian house and traces of a Neolithic house each represent their own themes. This provides a clear thematic selection for planning your trip: Quaker history, architecture and everyday life during the Famine, or early settlement traces.

Local History and Heritage in Boystown

A restored Quaker graveyard is located in Boystown (Bailte Bhuí), at the entrance to Blessington Lakes Golf Course. On the map of the Lakeside Heritage Trail, Boystown Quaker Graveyard is marked as stop 4; the map also indicates that the trail is suitable for walking. This allows you to place the graveyard in the context of the designated heritage trail.

The house’s history offers another way to explore local history. Baltiboys House was built in the late 18th century as a two-storey late Georgian house with a five-bay façade. It is considered a building of regional importance in Ireland. Privately owned Baltyboys House was the home of Elisabeth Smith. Her account is one of the most comprehensive contemporary descriptions of everyday life, as well as domestic, local, national and international events during the Famine. Smith was the great-grandmother of Ninette de Valois, founder of the London Royal Ballet.

Boystown’s Neolithic house offers another historical perspective. Its excavation uncovered fragments of Neolithic pottery, a flint axe and other stone tools, including a Bann flake made of flint. The site is on a gently sloping hillside overlooking the King’s River. The shoreline near the Neolithic house is usually flooded by the Poulaphuca Reservoir and only becomes visible when the water level falls.

The Blessington Lakeside Heritage Project features Boystown on its website and brings together information about nature, history, folklore and cultural heritage in this part of northwest Wicklow. The local connections can be readily distinguished by theme: the graveyard points to Quaker history, Elisabeth Smith’s account to everyday life during the Famine, and the excavated finds to the Neolithic past.

County Wicklow: Further Historical and Landscape Perspectives

As a distinct, broader context, County Wicklow offers further historical points of interest. In Glendalough, Saint Kevin founded a monastery in the 6th century. The surviving remains of the Monastic City include a round tower, numerous medieval stone churches and decorated crosses. There was also a monastery in Kilmacurragh in the 7th century; 21 hectares of the former demesne became part of the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland in 1996. Rhododendron Week in Kilmacurragh takes place every April. Check the event dates before your trip.

The landscape and walking are also central to the wider County Wicklow context. Wicklow Mountains National Park covers 20,000 hectares and is an important recreational area for locals and visitors. The Wicklow Way was Ireland’s first waymarked long-distance walking trail. These regional themes complement the insights relating to Boystown without conflating them with the area’s local histories and archaeological finds.

Discover more destinations: Ballinalea, Bray, Baltinglass, Oldbridge, Tulfarris Holiday Village, Shillelagh, Redcross, Wicklow.

For the main travel overview: County Wicklow.