BALLYSCULLION,
a parish, partly in the barony of UPPER TOOME, county of ANTRIM,
but chiefly in that of LOUGHINSHOLIN, county of LONDONDERRY,
and province of ULSTER; containing, with the post-town of Bellaghy,
6453 inhabitants.
This parish,
which is intersected by the roads leading respectively from Castle
Dawson to Portglenone, and from Maghera
to Bellaghy, comprises,
according to the Ordnance Survey, 12,750 ¼ statute acres, of
which 10,617 ¼ are in the county of Londonderry, 2406
are part of Lough Beg. and 72 ¾ part of the river Bann,
which here forms the boundary of the parish, barony, and county.
On the
plantation of Ulster, these lands were granted by Jas. I. to the Irish
Society, and by them transferred to the Vintners' Company of London,
who founded the castle and town of Bellaghy, described under its own
head. At a very early period a monastery was founded on an island in
Lough Beg. about two miles from the shore, then called Ynis Teda,
but now Church island, from the parish church having been subsequently
erected there : this establishment continued to flourish till the dissolution,
and some of the lands which belonged to it are still tithe free. Two
townlands in the parish belong to the see of Derry, and the remainder
has been leased in perpetuity by the Vintners' Company to the Marquess
of Lothian, the Earl of Clancarty, Lord Strafford, and Sir Thomas Pakenham.
There
are from 400 to 450 acres of bog, part of which in summer affords coarse
pasturage for cattle; a portion of it lying remote from the Bann is
of a blackish colour, and capable of cultivation for rye and potatoes;
the other part, which from its white colour is called “flour bog;”
is quite incapable of cultivation till it has been cut away for fuel,
when the subsoil appears, varying from 5 Agricultural Society, of which
a branch has been established here, is generally in an excellent state
of cultivation; mangel-wurzel, rape, turnips, and other green crops,
are being introduced with success.
There
are indications of coal in several parts, particularly on the Castle-Dawson
estate; but there is no prospect of their being explored or worked
while the extensive bogs afford so plentiful a supply of fuel.
Of the
numerous seats the principal are Castle Dawson, the seat of the
Right Hon. G. R. Dawson; Bellaghy Castle, the residence
of J, Hill, Esq.; Bellaghy House, of H. B. Hunter,
Esq.; Fairview, of R, Henry, Esq. ,and Rowensgift,
of A. Leckey, Esq. The splendid palace built here by the Earl
of Bristol, when Bishop of Derry, one of the most magnificent
in the country, was scarcely finished at his Lordship's decease, and
was soon after taken down and the materials sold: the only entire portion
that has been preserved is the beautiful portico, which was purchased
by Dr. Alexander, Bishop of Down and Connor, who presented it
to the parish of St. George, Belfast, as an ornament to that
church. A small portion of the domestics' apartments and a fragment
of one of the picture galleries are all that remain. There are some
extensive cotton-mills at Castle-Dawson, also flour, corn, and flax-mills;
and about a mile above the town is a small bleach-green. Fairs for cattle,
sheep, and pigs are held at Bellaghy on the first Monday in every month;
and a manorial court is held monthly, for the a recovery of debts not
exceeding £2.
The living
is a rectory, in the diocese
of Derry, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount
to £350, The church, situated in Bellaghy,
is a large and handsome edifice, erected in 1794 on the site of a former
church built in 1625: it is in the early English style, with a lofty
and beautiful octagonal spire erected at the expense of the Earl
of Bristol, and is about to be enlarged by the addition of a north
aisle. There is a chapel at Castle-Dawson belonging to the Dawson
family, by whom it was built and endowed; it is open to the inhabitants.
The glebe-house is about a quarter of a mile from the town on a glebe
comprising 70 acres; and there is also a glebe of 84 acres at Moneystachan,
in the parish of Tamlaght-O'Crilly, all arable land.
In the
R. C. divisions this parish comprehends the grange
of Ballyscullion, in the diocese
of Connor, in which union are two chapels, one at Bellaghy
and the other in the Grange.
At Ballaghy
are places of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod
of Ulster, Methodists, and Seceders.
There
is a male and female parochial school, aided by annual donations from
the rector and the proprietors of the Bellaghy estate, who built the
school-house; and there are five other schools, which afford instruction
to about 300 boys and 240 girls; also three private schools, in which
are about 100 boys and 20 girls. Here is a dispensary conducted on the
the most approved plan; and the proprietors of the Bellaghy estate annually
distribute blankets and clothes among the poor.
The ruins
of the old church on Ynis Teda, or Church island, are extensive and
highly interesting; and close to them a square tower surmounted by a
lofty octangular spire of hewn freestone was erected by the Earl of
Bristol, which is a beautiful object in the landscape. A large mis-shapen
stone, called Clogh O'Neill, is pointed out as an object of interest;
and not far distant is a rock basin, or holy stone, to which numbers
annually resort in the hope of deriving benefit from the efficacy of
the water in healing diseases.
