CLONMETHAN, a parish, in the barony of NETHERCROSS county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTSR, 4 miles (E.) from Ashbourne; containing 677 inhabitants. A great quantity of corn is grown in this parish, and it contains a limestone quarry.
A cattle fair is held in the demesne of Fieldstone on Whit-Monday.
The principal seats are
- the glebe-house, the residence of the Rev. T. Radcliff, from which is a fine view of the surrounding country ;
- Fieldstone, the seat of P. Bourne, Esq. ;
- Brown's Cross, of W. L. Galbraith, Esq. ; and
- Wyanstown, of R. Rooney, Esq.
The parish is in the diocese of Dublin, and with the vicarages of Ballyboghill, Ballymadun, Palmerstown, and Westpalstown, perpetually united to it by act of council in 1675, constitutes the prebend of Clonmethan in the cathedral of St. Patrick, and in the patronage of the Archbishop : the tithes amount to £270. The glebe-house was erected in 1817, by aid of a gift of £100, and a loan of £1350, from the late Board : there is a glebe of 35 acres in this parish, and one of 19 acres and 2 roods in Ballymadun ; and the gross revenue of the prebend, according to the report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Inquiry, is £638. A neat church was erected in 1818, by £250 parish cess, and a loan of £500 from the late Board of First Fruits, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £175. 4s. 11d., towards its repair. The mother church of Clonmethan was dedicated to St. Mary, and the chapel of Fieldstown, which was dedicated to St. Catharine, was subordinate to it.
In the Roman Catholic divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Rollestown, and has a chapel at Old Town, which was erected in 1827, by subscription, and cost nearly £300. Here is a private school, in which are 50 children ; and at Old Town is a dispensary.
