Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CLONFERT

CLONFERT, a parish, in the barony of DUHALLOW, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER; containing, with the post-towns of Kanturk and Newmarket, 14,145 inhabitants. This parish, which is also called "Trinity Christ Church Newmarket," is situated on the rivers Allua and Dallua, which meet at Kanturk, in their course to the Blackwater; and on the road from Cork, through the Bogra mountains, to Abbeyfeale, in the county of Limerick, and Listowel, in the county of Kerry. It extends 16 Irish miles from north-west to south-east, and contains 64,871 acres, valued for the county cess at £19,677 per annum. About half the parish consists of bog and mountain; the other half of arable and pasture land of inferior quality. There are extensive beds of culm, some of which, near Newmarket, have been but are not now worked. This district has been much benefited by the road from Cork to Abbeyfeale, which was constructed soon after the distress in 1822; and much further benefit would be produced by connecting that road with the new Government road from Roskeen bridge, through King-William's-Town, to Castle Island, by a short road of about five Irish miles, passing the valuable but hitherto isolated, limestone quarry at Tour. This parish comprehends the extensive manor of Newmarket, and portions of those of Kanturk and Castle Mac Auliffe; the remainder of the latter manor is in Kilmeen, and of Kanturk, in Kilmeen and Kilbrin.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Cloyne, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in Colonel Longfield, of Longueville: the tithes amount to £1163. 1. 6., of which half is paid to the impropriator and half to the vicar. A glebe-house was erected in 1811, near Newmarket, aided by a loan of £1125 from the late Board of First Fruits, but, having become dilapidated, has been taken down: the glebe comprises 9 statute acres, one having been lately annexed to the old burial-ground of Clonfert, by permission of the bishop. The parish church, in the town of Newmarket, is a handsome edifice, in the later style of English architecture, built in 1826, at an expense of £2200, of which £2000 was a loan from the late Board of First Fruits; it has a square tower, embattled and pinnacled, and surmounted by a lofty spire, the whole formed of hewn limestone. The church at Kanturk, which is annexed to the perpetual cure of that place, is a neat building, with a square tower, embattled and pinnacled.

In the R. C. divisions this parish contains two parochial districts, Kanturk and Newmarket, which see. Besides the schools at those places, the Irish Society has four circulating schools in the parish; and there are several private schools. Of Mac Auliffe's castle, which was situated near Newmarket, and was a chief seat of the sept of that name, only the foundation exists; but of the castle of Carrigacashel, near Priory, the ruins still remain. There was formerly a castle on the Mount, near Mr. Aldworth's lodge, in Newmarket, and another at Curragh, which also belonged to the Mac Auliffes; both have been demolished, and on the site of the latter is a handsome modern house, the residence of Neptune Blood, Esq. In Mr. Aldworth's demesne many trinkets and military implements have been found. Here are some chalybeate springs.


(Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837); Transcription © Derek Rowlinson, 2005-10. Reproduced from LibraryIreland. We are deeply grateful to LibraryIreland for allowing us to use their transcription.)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Clonfert IrlPar       Duhallow IrlBarony       Cork IrlC
Place: Clonfert

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