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Ballylynan
or Ballylinan village, Killabban Civil Parish, County Laois, Ireland
BALLYLINAN,
a village, in the parish of KILLEBAN,
barony of BALLYADAMS, QUEEN'S
county, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (S.W.) from Athy
(Co. Kildare), on the road to Castlecomer (Co. Kilkenny)
; containing 94 houses and 533 inhabitants.
In
the strata of the neighbouring lands are numerous marine exuviae;
and some valuable coal mines, called the Wolf-Hill and Mordulah
collieries, are worked by steam-engines recently erected. Great
quantities of fine flag-stones were formerly raised on the adjoining
townland of Boley; but on the discovery of similar quarries
near Carlow, more conveniently situated for conveyance by
canal, they were abandoned. Stones containing a large proportion
of iron are found on the lands called Iron Park; but no works
have been yet established. The village is a constabulary police
station, and has a penny post to Athy. Fairs are held in it on Jan.
11th, Feb. 10th. May 10th, Sept. 2nd, and Nov. 26th; and petty sessions
every Saturday.
To
the north is Rahin, the seat of Lieut.-Col. Weldon,
a handsome mansion surrounded by thriving plantations; and at a
short distance are the luxuriant woods of Gracefield Lodge,
the seat of the ancient family of Grace, whose old mansion
has been taken down and replaced by an elegant villa in the later
English style, from a design by Mr. Nash, completed in 1817;
the grounds have been tastefully embellished, and the approach from
the Kilkenny side presents some beautiful and interesting
mountain scenery.
In
the village are the ruins of an old church, near which some ancient
coins have been dug up; and on the Marquess of Lansdowne's
estate of Luggaghcurran, in the vicinity, are the remains
of a cromlech, consisting of five upright pillars, about 4 1/2 feet
high, and a table stone 8 1/2 feet long, 7 wide, and 2 1/2 feet
in thickness. On the highest point of the Boley hills, and
near the woods of Gracefield, is Dundrom, an extensive
earthwork consisting of a vast mound, the summit of which is 130
yards in diameter, enclosed by a high bank, and surrounded at the
base by a fosse 30 feet wide at the bottom. Within the enclosure
is a well of fine water, and from the mound is a view of uncommon
extent. This post was occupied by a party of the insurgents in 1798.
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