Kilmactranny

KILMACTRANY, a parish, in the barony of TIRAGHRILL, county of SLIGO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 6 miles (N.) from Boyle, on the road to Ballyfarnon; containing 4008 inhabitants. This parish comprises 6531 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, besides which there is much bog and mountain land: the soil is light, and agriculture is in a backward state.

Limestone is abundant, iron ore exists, and a seam of coal, 22 inches thick, has lately been discovered in the mountains of Geevagh. It is situated on Lough Arrow, a picturesque sheet of water at the base of the Curlew mountains, about a mile from Lough Key, by which it communicates with the Shannon: this lake is five miles in length and two in its greatest breadth, and is studded with islands, and remarkable for the size and fine flavour of its trout. On the western side is Hollybrook House, the handsome residence of J. Folliott, Esq., the plantations of which form a pleasing picture when viewed from the opposite shore. Petty sessions are held here every fortnight on Tuesday, and it is a constabulary police station. Kingsborough, which gives the title of Viscount to the eldest son of the Earl of Kingston, is the residence of J. Gethin, Esq.; and Ballynashee, of M. Keogh, Esq. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, united to the vicarages of Shancoe and Killadoon, and in the gift of the bishop; the rectory is impropriate in W. Mulloy, Esq. The tithes amount to £106. 3., which is equally divided between the impropriator and the vicar, and the tithes of the benefice to £89. 11. 6. There is a glebe-house, for the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits, in 1819, gave £650 and lent £150: the glebe comprises 12 acres, subject to a rent of £7 per annum. The church is a small modern building, for the erection of which the late Board gave £800, in 1811; and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £305 for its repair.

In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district, called Geevagh, which is co-extensive with the Protestant. union, and has a handsome chapel, ornamented with minarets, at Geevagh, and another at Highwood. There are three public schools, to one of which Lord Dundas gave a school-house and garden, and contributes annually, and another is under the patronage of M. Keogh, Esq.; in these schools about 70 children are educated, and there are three private schools, in which are about 170 children. Here is a remarkable cromlech, called Leaba Diarmud i Grange, or "Darby and Granye's bed," consisting of a horizontal stone, supported by four others set upright. Among the ruins of the old church is a mutilated cross.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.