Toll Roads and Turnpikes – John Lynch

Toll Roads and Turnpikes

Jack Lynch

The name turnpike or pike was commonly used for the gates on a toll road. Tolls or taxes have been collected since medieval times in Ireland. These taxes were used for the upkeep of walled towns and roads. For trade between communities to be successful a good road network was necessary and to pay for the building and upkeep of these roads a tax or cess was levied on the local landowners. The 1615 Act required that for six days in midsummer every landowner be obliged to provide a cart and horse with four workmen and tools. By 1676 the roads in the Liberty of Kilkenny were in such bad repair that the Mayor of the city threatened churchwardens and parishioners that he would bring them before general sessions of the Courts unless repair work was carried out.

It way complained of by the local communities in various places that through traffic, for example carts travelling to Cork, Dublin and Waterford, were not contributing to the upkeep of the roads so the Irish Parliament enacted legislation enabling the turnpike system in 1729. This act was basically a copy of legislation passed in the House of Commons for England in 1663.

The term turnpike comes from the old English turnen and pike meaning sharp spike and would have been similar to the turnstiles that we see in Nowlan Park today. The idea of a turnpike charge was that the user pays for the upkeep of the road just like we pay now on the M50 or the River Suir Bridge at Waterford.

One of the first turnpike roads was the Dublin to Kilcullen Bridge road, which was extended through Carlow to Kilkenny and on to Clonmel. This toll road was legislated for in1731. The Athy to Castlecomer turnpike road and onto Leighlinbridge was legislated for in 1751. Castlecomer to Kilkenny was legislated for in 1793. Shankill, Paulstown to Waterford via Thomastown was legislated for in 1811. Large landowners lobbied for turnpikes to enhance their landholdings. Good roads enabled easier access to markets and ports.

The only access to the road was through a gate system, which was placed at either end of the tolled section. Toll rates varied from a halfpenny for every horse, mare gelding, mule or ass, laden or unladen up to one shilling for every coach, berlin, chariot, calash, chaise or chair drawn by six or more horses. A drove of oxen or cattle was ten pence and a drove of calves, hogs, sheep or lambs was five pence. A drove was a score or twenty animals. These were the rates in 1729 and increased over the years.

The drover paid the toll at the first gate he encountered and was issued a ticket, which was valid for each subsequent gate that was encountered on the same day. Tolls were collected by the gatekeeper who remitted the money to the trust that oversaw that particular piece of road. As is normal in Ireland abuses of the toll gathering were commonplace. Gatekeepers could allow their friend to pass at a reduced rate or even for free or they might not remit any or all of the collected tolls. The toll collectors, who gathered the money from the gatekeepers, might withhold a percentage for their own use. Surveyors and road builders and repairers could be working in their own interest.
The Kilkenny to Clonmel turnpike road was the subject of a very large fraud, which necessitated the passing of a special Act of Parliament in 1751.
On the toll road from Kilkenny to Dublin there was a tollgate at intervals of roughly eight and a half miles.
The surveyors or engineers who laid out the roads were not as qualified as our present day professionals. They tended to lay them out in straight lines and didn’t take account of any hills that might lie in their path. This could lead to very steep hills, which were difficult to negotiate. The Castlecomer road from Crettyard to the top of the Rushes in County Laois is one example. I’m sure The Rushes Inn, now sadly defunct, was a very welcome sight. The road from Athy to Kilcullen is very long and straight with steep hills in parts and seems to go on forever. It was commonly called The Tramps Despair.

An account by a traveller to Ireland in 1746 describes how coal was transported from Castlecomer to the market in Dublin. The cart was described as a garron and had two solid wooden wheels. It was loaded with six hundred weight of coal in a kish or woven basket. The horses grazed along the road and each driver was in charge of ten horses and carts nose to tail. Five or six pence worth of coal could be sold for five shillings in Dublin. Most of this haulage took place on toll roads.

The road system was improved to due to the influence of the new postal system, established in 1789. The Post Office Act of 1805 gave the Postmaster General the power to have the roads maintained properly and mail-coaches could reach a speed of just under ten miles an hour. And Charles Bianconi and his vehicles benefited from this also.

In Kilkenny we can observe how these toll roads still leave an impression on the landscape. The public house called The Pike on the Dublin Road at Lavistown commemerated where a turnpike or tollgate formerly stood. The piers of the tollgates were in situ until the middle of the 1950’s. A police barracks and lockup stood opposite the barracks. It is not believed that the public house operated in conjunction with the tollgates as gatekeepers were forbidden to deal in drink.
It became obvious in the middle of the nineteenth century that the toll road system wasn’t fit for purpose. The tolls would never be enough to cover the capital cost of new roads and major repairs so in 1857 an act of Parliament was passed to cease the practice of tolling.

There is a Pike Road at Dunmore near The Rise and there is a Turnpike House on the ‘Comer Road near the Dinan Bridge. A landmark well known to hurling fans is the Turnpike on the road from Urlingford to Thurles where you turn off for Two Mile Borris.

If any of the listeners know of any other references to tolls or turnpikes they might contact this programme.