Kilcluney or Kilclooney civil parish, Co. Armagh

KILCLUNEY, or KILCLOONEY, a district parish, partly in the barony of LOWER ORIOR, but chiefly in that of LOWER FEWS, county of ARMAGH, and province of ULSTER, 5 miles (S. W.) from Markethill, on the road from Newry to Armagh city; containing 7627 inhabitants.

It was constituted, in 1792, by disuniting 22 townlands from the parish of Mullaghbrack, and comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 12,833¼ statute acres, of which 3109 are heath and bog, and the remainder in a high state of cultivation. At Carricklane is a quarry of good clay-slate, from which was raised the stone for building Gosford Castle. Lead ore has been also found in considerable quantities, and there are indications of coal. The weaving of linen and cotton cloth is carried on.

It is in the diocese of Armagh, and on its separation from Mullaghbrack, a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Prebendary of Mullaghbrack, was instituted, under the provisions of an act of the 7th of Geo. III, - and a church was built at Glassdrummond, a plain neat edifice, for the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits gave £500. The glebe-house, towards which the same Board granted £450 as a gift and £50 as a loan is handsome building, situated on a glebe of 22 acres.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Lisnadill, or Ballymacnab ; the chapel is a large and handsome edifice at Clady.

There are two places of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Seceding synod, one of the first class at bedrock the other at Ballylane.

There are eight public schools some of which are aided by donations from the Rev. Dr. Blacker, others by Lords Charlemont and Gosford, and the parochial school by the prebendary and perpetual curate : they afford instruction. to about 680 children.

Some vestiges yet exist of the old church of Kilcluney, which was burnt in 1641, and also of a bawn built in 1619 by H. Achison, Esq., which was destroyed at the same time. ‘Cairn-amnhanaghan,’ or “The Vicar's Cairn," which is noticed more particularly under the head of Mullaghbrack, is in this district.

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