TUMNA, or TOEMONIA, a parish, in the barony of BOYLE, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT, 1 and a half miles west from Carrick-on-Shannon, on the road to Boyle and on the river Shannon; containing 4,453 inhabitants.
This parish comprises 4473 and three quarters statute acres, mostly good land, though there is much bog: agriculture is in a backward state: limestone and freestone abound. There is a canal from Lough Allen to Carrick, to avoid the shoals.
A large portion of the parish is occupied by the Coote Hall estate, the improved property of Hugh Barton, Esq., presenting a great contrast to the surrounding lands. Some of the tenantry are engaged in the woollen and cotton manufactures, such as coarse flannels, and striped woollen and cotton stuffs used for undergarments.
The Shannon bounds the parish on the east, on the shore of which is the small rising village of Battlebridge, at the end of a bridge on the road from the village and county of Leitrim: this bridge is of 6 arches, 150 feet in length and 13 in width. On the south side of the parish are the upper and lower Oakford loughs (aka Oakport Lough), through which the Boyle water descends into the Shannon.
Near the banks of the Boyle water stands Old Coote Hall (with a wretched dependent village), formerly a place of strength, of which a northern round tower with a conical roof forms an appendage to the farm-house into which the buildings have been converted: the surrounding curtain walls include ruins of various other old buildings.
The gentlemen's seats are:
- Hughestown, the residence of C. Molloy, Esq. (up until 1846), standing immediately on a large lake formed by the Boyle water;
- Woodbrook, of James Kirkwood, Esq. (1808-1857) who was actually residing at The Hermitage, Croghan (up to 1846);
- Lakeview, of Thomas Kirkwood, Esq.(1802-54)
- Springfield, of C. W. Peyton, Esq.
It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, forming part of the union of Ardclare; the rectory is impropriate in Viscount Lorton. The tithes amount to £140, half of which is payable to the impropriator, and half to the vicar.
In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly in the union or district of Killuken, also called Croghan and Ballinameen, and partly in that of Ardcarne or Crossna (now Cootehall), and contains a chapel: a school is maintained by the parish priest.
Remains of an ancient church exist, with a cemetery attached. Seven golden balls were dug up near the old church of the size of an egg, supposed to have belonged to the church.
SOURCE: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (pub 1837)
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