KILWAUGHTER,
a parish, in the barony of UPPER GLENARM, county of ANTRIM
and province of ULSTER, l mile (W. S. W.) from Larne,
on the road to Ballymena ; containing 2016 inhabitants.
This
parish comprises 9803½ statute acres, of which 11½ are
under water, about one-third is arable, and a very huge portion mountain
and waste land, particularly Agnew Hill, which has an elevation
of 1558 feet above the level of the sea. The lands near the castle
are in a high state of cultivation ; there is some bog, and limestone
and basalt are abundant.
Kilwaughter
Castle, the elegant mansion of E. J. Agnew, Esq., proprietor
of nine-tenths of the parish, and for several centuries the residence
of that family, is situated within a beautiful and extensive demesne.
In the plantation above the castle is a place called Dhu Hole,
a fissure in the limestone rook, into which falls a river that is
nowhere seen again till it enters Lough Larne. There are some
extensive cotton mills in the parish, that formerly employed more
than 1000 persons, but are now unoccupied ; linen cloth is woven in
some parts.
It is
a rectory, in the diocese of Connor,
forming part of the union and corps of the prebend of Cairncastle
in the cathedral of Connor. A perpetual curacy has been recently instituted,
called the curacy of Cairncastle and Kilwaughter, which is
endowed with the tithes of the latter parish, amounting to £90.
The church is at Cairncastle ; the glebe, in this parish, was purchased
by the late Board of First Fruits, which also built an excellent glebe-house,
in 1813.
There
is a small Roman Catholic chapel at Craiganorn.
About
200 children are taught in three public schools. The late Mr. Agnew
bequeathed £10 per annum to the poor.
There
are some slight remains of the old church in the castle demesne.
