ARDCLARE, or CLONIGORMICAN, a parish, in the half-barony of BALLYMOE, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT, 5? miles (N. N. w.) from Roscommon, on the road to Castlerea; containing 2633 inhabitants. It comprises 8066 statute acres, principally under pasture; there is no wasteland, and only a small quantity of bog, sufficient for supplying the inhabitants with fuel. Limestone of the best description abounds, but the quarries are not worked for any particular purpose.
The principal gentlemen's seats are
- Runnymead, that of J. Balfe, Esq.;
- Ballymacurly, of M. Nolan, Esq.;
- Briarfield, of C. Hawkes, Esq.; and
- Faragher Lodge, of the Rev. Lewis Hawkes.
Manorial courts are held in the townland of Farragher three times in the year.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, to which the vicarages of Kilcooley, Creeve, Killuken, Shankill, Kilmacumsy, and Tumna were episcopally united in 1809, which seven parishes constitute the union of Ardclare, in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in the Earl of Essex and Lord De Roos.
The tithes amount to £176. 12., one-half of which is payable to the impropriators (the Earl of Essex receiving £73. 11. 8. and Lord De Roos, £14. 14. 4.) and the other half to the vicar; and the gross amount of the tithes of the union payable to the incumbent is £491. 11. l0d.
The church was originally built by Chas. Hawkes, Esq., of Briarfield, as a chapel of ease, about the year 1720, and subsequently became the parochial church; it is a plain edifice in good repair. There is neither glebe-house nor glebe.
In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Glinsk and Ballymoe; the chapel, a neat edifice recently erected, is situated on the townland of Ballymacurly.
There are three pay schools, in which are about 100 boys and 40 girls.
