Track of Cromwell's Road, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Roads & Tracks

Track of Cromwell’s Road, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary

Beneath a north-facing slope of improved pasture outside Dundrum in County Tipperary, a road lies completely invisible.

Walk across the field and you would have no idea it was there. Yet cartographers mapping the area in 1840 recorded it clearly on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, marking it as a linear feature running roughly north to south for approximately 350 metres, defined by a double dotted line suggesting a width of around ten to twelve metres, and labelling it, with quiet certainty, "Track of Cromwell's Road".

The name, and the association it carries, is the intriguing part. Oliver Cromwell's campaign in Ireland between 1649 and 1650 left a deep physical and psychological scar across the country, and roads, causeways, and tracks attributed to his forces crop up in local memory across several counties. Whether this particular road was genuinely laid or used by Cromwellian troops, or whether the name reflects a broader folk habit of attaching Cromwell's name to old or unexplained features in the landscape, is not recorded. What local tradition does say is that the road ran from Dundrum House to Ballintemple church and graveyard, a connection between the domestic and the sacred that suggests a functional, possibly ceremonial route rather than a military one. The 1840 map may also preserve a clue about its full extent: an alignment of trees visible on the map hints that the road turned at a right angle in the direction of Ballintemple, implying an original route that was longer and more purposeful than the surviving trace suggests.

Because the road leaves no surface impression today, there is little to see in the conventional sense. Its interest lies in the gap between what the landscape shows and what older maps remember; a named route, a width wide enough to matter, and a local story that survived long enough to be recorded, even as the road itself quietly disappeared into the pasture.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Track of Cromwell’s Road, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement