TULLYRUSK,
a parish, in the barony of UPPER MASSAREENE, county of ANTRIM,
and province of ULSTER, 3 miles (E.) from Glenavy,
on the road from Lisburn to Antrim town
containing 5360 inhabitants.
It comprises,
according to the Ordnance survey 4779½ statute acres, chiefly
under pasture; the land in the lower part is tolerably good, but in
the southern part there is much unimproved and barren mountain : there
are about 100 acres of bog at the Brown moss. The climate, from
the position of the parish between Lough Neagh and Belfast
Lough, is moist and chilly. The rivers Crumlin and Glenavy
bound it to the east and west. The weaving of linens and cottons
for the Belfast market is carried on to some extent in the farm houses.
Knockairn
is the residence of Fortescue Gregg, Esq.
It is
a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor
forming part of the union of Glenavy
; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Hertford. The
tithes amount to £71. 1s. 11d., of which £15. 15s., is payable
to the impropriator, and £55. 6s. 11d. to the vicar. In the registry
of Connor this parish is called a grange, and in the terrier
and regal visitation book a chapelry; having been, probably, either
a Bishop's mensal or a dependency on one of the great monasteries. The
church of Tullyrusk stood in the townland of that name, near
the verge of the parish ; from the portions of its foundations still
remaining, its dimensions appear to have been 62 feet by 17. Adjoining
it is a large and well-enclosed cemetery, in which the Protestant dissenters
and Roman Catholics chiefly bury.
There
are four private schools, in which about 140 children are educated ;
arid two Sunday schools. Several raths and tumuli occur in various parts.
The crystals commonly called Lough Neagh pebbles are found in great
quantities on turning up the land by the plough, although the lake whence
they take their name is three miles distant, and the elevation of the
land where they are found is many hundred feet above the level of its
surface.
