KILMOREMOY, a parish, partly in the barony of Tyreragh, county of Sligo, but chiefly in that of Tyrawley, county of Mayo, and province of Connaught, on the river Moy; containing, with the market and post-town of Ballina and the town of Ardnaree (both of which are separately described), 14,586 inhabitants.
Here is much bog, and agriculture is in a backward state.
The principal seats are:
- Beleek Abbey, the residence of Lieut. - Col. F. A. Knox Gore, a noble mansion in the later English style of architecture, erected by a proprietor at an expense of £10,000, and beautifully situated on the banks of the Moy, in a fine demesne tastefully laid out and richly planted;
- Belleek Castle, the handsome residence of E. Howly, Esq.; and
- Ardnaree Cottage, of T. Jones, Esq.
It is a vicarage in the diocese of Killala, forming part of the union of Ardagh; the rectory is appropriate to the precentorship of Killala cathedral.
- The tithes amount to £472.3.7, of which £49. 17. 11 .is payable to the precentor, and £422. 5. 8 to the vicar.
- There is a glebe-house, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits gave £100, in 1794, and which was rebuilt by a loan of £600 and a gift of £200 from the same Board, in 1828: the glebe comprises 11 acres.
- The church of the union, which is in Ardnaree, was built in 1763, by aid of a gift of £300 from the late Board, which granted £1400 as a loan for its enlargement, in 1816, and the ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £573 for its repair.
The R.C. parish is coextensive with that of the Established Church and has a handsome unfinished cathedral at Ardnaree.
Here are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists.
There are eight public schools, to one of which the Rev. Mr Hueston subscribes £20 per annum, and in which about 520 children are educated; and nine private schools, in which are about 370 children.
Here are a cromlech, and the remains of an ancient castle, which gives name to the village of Ardnaree, or "the king's height; and some ruins of the old church, with a burial-ground attached.
– See also BALLINA
SOURCE: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (pub 1837)
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