Kilwaughter

KILWAUGHTER, a parish, in the barony of UPPER-GLENARM, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, 1 mile (W. S. W.) from Larne, on the road to Ballymena; containing 2016 inhabitants. This parish comprises 9803½statute acres, of which 11½are under water, about one-third is arable, and a very large 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 rock, into which falls a river that is nowhere seen again till it enters Lough Larne. There are some extensive cottonmills 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 R. C. 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.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.

Note that the RC Chapel mentioned is actually not in Craiginorne townland, but just over the boundary in Ballygowan townland, Ralloo civil parish.