30. Dolly's Forge, Pollacrossaun.

Dolly’s Forge is an iconic local building located at the junction of the L3201 road to Skehana and the R339 main road between Menlough and Monivea, opposire Skehana Community Centre and adjacent to Garbally National School and Garbally Castle. While the majority of people would consider this forge to be in Garbally it is actually located in the townland of Pollacrossaun.

Laurence Dolly, a son of Peter and Catherine Dolly, from Kilbeg , Monivea, married Mary Laheen from Pollacrossaun, on February 9th 1899 and set about building a forge at this location and establishing his own blacksmith business. The Dolly family in Kilbeg had long been recognised at this craft where they had built a forge in 1874 primarily to service the needs of the French family of Monivea Demesne in addition to serving those of local tenant farmers also.

Laurence’s eldest son, James, served his apprenticeship by helping his father run the forge and would eventually take over the operation of the business himself. James worked six days a week shoeing horses, making iron gates, repairing cart wheels and making and repairing a broad variety of household and farm inplements. This forge was a great centre for social conversation in the area and the focal point for meetings while discussing parish and national events. Children from the nearby national school ofer called in on their way home and sometimes they were allowed to operate the bellows.

James continued to work in the forge until the mid-1970s but the advent of the tractor and the subsequent reliance on horsepower had led to the demise of balcksmith services, not just here in Pollacrossaun, but throughout the entire country. The late Martin Glynn from Guilka was the last person to take a horse to this forge.