A Stroll Down Blackberry Lane

Tess Byrne 1AUG17

rowing up on Blackberry Lane, you had to be fit as all feck…

From Delgany village up to the peak was more a cliff than a hill, and many a car gave up the ghost even before reaching the halfway mark.

For someone like Tess Byrne, there was the extra weight of 11 kids and no transport to consider too.

Pat’s moped really didn’t count, the man of the house rarely being able to carry more than himself, his sandwiches and a spare cap. 

Originally from Sixmilebridge, Tess O’Shaughnessy was well-used to country living when, just leaving her teens, she left County Clare to marry Patrick Byrne in 1951, and move into the 300-year-old family cottage, perched atop the notoriously, almost comically, steep Blackberry Lane.

Like so much of Delgany over the past 70 years, today, Blackberry Lane is a far cry from the dirt road withjust  four houses along its half-a-mile stretch that greeted the teenage Tess. Either end – at the village and over at the Willow Grove – they were larger, wealthier homes; pretty much opposite one another at that peak, were the Byrne’s and Hill’s cottages.

With the kettle just boiled, and the Christmas pud resurrected and generously sliced once again, we sat down to have a chat with Tess about those early years, the people, and the changes. Naturally, as we strolled down memory lane, there were a few detours off into fields, paths to friends gone by, and the occasional skid into a hedge on a dark patch.

Hill’s Cottage 1980s

There are a hundred stories to be told about Blackberry Lane, and there will no doubt be a hundred more. Today, the Byrne cottage still stands, having managed to gain an 11th hour reprieve; Hill’s cottage has gone to ground.

Just as the grand old Style Bawn house at the Delgany end will too, now that Maguire & Patterson have finally had their way.

There are still some beautiful houses on Blackberry Lane – in amongst the Barbie castles and the Dallas dens – and there are still some beautiful people.

Reggie’s Gap c1890

Tess Byrne is lucky enough to be surrounded by three such families today.

Not so much an exhaustive history of Blackberry Lane as one person’s life-long love affair with this magical place, Tess’s memories are sometimes rose-tinted, sometimes just a tad tainted. We’ll go rooting through the archives further over the coming months and years, so we can find out a little more…

A little more about Scott’s Wood, about Cherry’s Brow, The Rabbit Sand, The Hole In The Tree, The Dark Corner, Reggie’s Gap, and all the other secret meeting points hidden along this short and winding road to anywhere…

You can find out more about Tess Byrne right about here.