description from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

Kilcar site centered Town Map at Past Homes.com

KILCAR or KILKARAGH, the barony of BANNAGH, county of DONEGAL, and province of ULSTER, 5 miles (W.) from Killybegs, containing 4319 inhabitants.

St. Carthach, whose festival is kept on the 5th of March, is supposed to have presided over a monastery here so early as the year 540. According to the Ordnance Survey, it comprises 18,883 statute acres, about one-sixth of which are arable, the remainder bog and mountain land. Agriculture is in a very backward state, and there is not a single tree in the parish. Fairs are held quarterly for cattle, yarn, and flannel.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Raphoe, and in the patronage of the Bishop : the tithes amount to £125. The church is a small handsome building, erected in 1828. There is a glebe-house with a glebe of 840 acres.

The Roman Catholic parish is co-extensive with the that of the Established Church, and has a large new chapel. The parochial school, in which are about 100 children, is endowed with a grant from Col. Robertson’s f fund, and there are three other schools and a dispensary.

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