40 Grange Rd, Toomebridge, Antrim BT41 3QB
[Photo: Cross Keys Inn, Toome (Ardnaglass).]
This is one of the most famous pubs in the land, a unique place in nearly every respect from the roof down. It’s an L-shaped, hipped thatched roof, the only one of its kind in the country according to Ulster’s leading thatcher, Gerry Agnew, who lives not far from the pub. The thatched roof is worth going to see just by itself, and yet it is no more than a cover for the treasure trove inside.
Your first problem though, might be the basic one of finding the bar, because strictly speaking, there is no such place as Cross Keys and this is really the townland of Ardnaglass. It’s a mark of how well known the pub is, however, that you can now find sign posts marked Cross Keys, as if to indicate that the hostelry is more important than its locale.
The building used to be on the main lower line between Belfast and Derry via Kilrea, and horses would change here in what is now the car park. The road was known as O’Neill estate, but things changed when the Upper Line was built as part of the famine relief schemes of the middle part of last century. The new road, through Randalstown and Portglenone, superseded the older one and the Cross Keys Inn lost much of its importance as a mainland stopping place. The workers on the Upper Line, by the way, were paid a bowl of soup a day.
There’s some arguement about the exact age of the Inn, but when the original thatch was examined, evidence was found that it dated back well before 1747. The explanation for the pub seems very acceptable.
The local order of Hibernians met here in the early days and their patron saint was Saint Patrick, whose cloak bore the Papal Coat-of-Arms; the lamb, the mitre and the crossed keys. It seems likely that the lamb and mitre may well have been rubbed out over the years, leaving only the keys, and this emblem became the sign of the pub. The old St. Patrick sign was found in the loft, and outside the pub today is a large, coloured picture of the Saint and crossed keys, painted boldly on the window shutters.
The Inn also saw service for many generations as a spirit grocer’s and some of the very, very old invoices, bills and receipts from this era are framed on display in the public bar.
Before you reach there, though, you stop to examine a fascinating exhibition in the porch. There on the walls is a selection of intriguing documents, public notices, announcements, advertisements, legal pronouncements and civil proclamations. There is, for example, a public advice poster issued at the time of the Irish Famine, instructing the people how to combat potato disease or blight. Then there’s a kind of conscription appeal inviting young men to enlist for military service in the American War of Independence. These are just two of the many rare, unusual and absorbing items on display. Pass these finally and the Failte (Welcome) on the door of the public bar, and you are in a wonderland of curios, a kind of Irish Olde Curiosity Shoppe. The exquisite hand-painted vases behind the counter are just a beginning, as is the mandolin and the collection of brass keg taps.
Suspended from the ceiling are countless pieces, many of which challenge identification. Here are a few of them at random: a railway-man’s lamp; a turnip sower, which publican Eammon Stinson jokes with American tourists is a leprechaun’s motorbike!; a minature sowing machine; a World War I gas mask; an old wooden cigarette machine that used to be hired round houses in the early part of this century, and dispensed cigarettes at ten for sixpence, and twenty for one shilling; the fake arm of a sea captain; an old musket; a tobacco twist guillotine; a weavers shuttlecock; a Thailand musical instrument made from bamboo canes, a kind of organ; a collapsible soda or wheaten bread rail, used for toasting a baked finish on the bread in front of the fire (most housewives simply set their newly baked bread against a turf or two and browned it in front of the fire); an 1850 cavalry man’s pistol from Threadneedle Street in London, one of the first attempts at a revolver; and two fowling pieces above the huge open fire, taken from a thatched roof in Magherafelt.
See the rest for yourself, but don’t expect to recognise or remember them all.
The Cross Keys Inn is also something of an art gallery, and has a policy of encouraging local artists. Several works by Bertie Higgins, the official artist to Belleek Pottery, are on show here and a fine painting of Murlough Bay, North Antrim, was done by the publican’s father. There’s a splendid colour drawing of three local musicians done by well-known artist, Maurice Keenan, and a pencil drawing of fiddler and poteen maker, Mickey McIlhatton, the king of the Glens, who appeared on the Dave Allen show. This is also a Maurice Keenan piece.
Having seen all this, you’ve still to visit the ‘big room’ as it’s called, to sit at candlelit tables and listen to the traditional music that is so popular here with tourists and locals alike.
Then there’s the kitchen bar with its massive open fireplaces and four foot crane, or crook, bearing black pots, kettles and cauldrons. The collection of oil lamps in the Big Room, or the wonderful selection of ornaments in the kitchen, you may decide to leave for another day.
The biggest wonder of all is how such a wealth of material can be housed so compactly in this one pub, but that’s only one of the many delightful surprises of the famous Cross Keys Inn.
[Photo: Inside the Cross Keys Inn, Toome.]
Price-list, January 1916 (Portrush).
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The one that didn’t get away, The May Fly Inn, Kesh.
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Brook’s Wine Bar, Coleraine, County Londonderry.
‘Architectural dig’ in Denver’s Hotel, Downpatrick, County Down.
Priest’s Hole – Dobbin’s Hotel. Hiding place for the fugitive priest during penal times.