Clonmore

CLONMORE, a parish, in the barony of RATHVILLY, county of CARLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 2½ miles (S. S. W.) from Hacketstown, on the road from Tullow to Hacketstown and Tinahely; containing 2244 inhabitants. It comprises 26,210 statute acres, of which about 2430 are covered with heath and furze, 130 are woodland, and 1500 bog, and of the remainder, one-fifth is arable and the rest a kind of pasture and meadow: of its entire surface, 5855 acres are applotted under the tithe act. There are some indications of agricultural improvement, although a considerable quantity of unprofitable land might be reclaimed and brought under tillage. Clonmore Lodge is the residence of Lieut.-Col.

Whelan; Castle View, of the Rev. R. A. Martin; and the glebe-house, of the Hon. and Rev. Archdeacon Stopford. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Leighlin, and constitutes the corps of the archdeaconry of Leighlin, in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £304. 12. 3¾. The glebe-house was built about 1812, by aid of a gift of £100 and a loan of £450 from the late Board of First Fruits: the glebe comprises ten acres. The church, a plain decent edifice, was built about the same period, by aid of a gift of £600 from the Board. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising the parishes of Clonmore, Liscoleman, and Mullinacuffe, and parts of those of Haroldstown, Aghold, Crecrim, and Fennagh: the chapel at Clonmore is a plain slated building, not in very good repair; and there are two others in the union, situated at Knock ballastine and Kilquiggan, in the parishes of Liscoleman and Aghold.

There are a parochial and a national school, affording instruction to about 180 children, including several sent hither from the Foundling Hospital in Dublin. At a short distance from the church are the venerable ruins of the castle, the origin of which, though not satisfactorily ascertained, is with some degree of probability attributed to the Earl of Ormonde, to whom the place was granted in the reign of Hen. VIII., although the castle of Clonmore is recorded to have been taken by the English in 1332. The ruins form three sides of a quadrangle, 170 feet square, of which the fourth has been demolished; at the angles are towers, and the whole was surrounded by a deep fosse, now filled up; several cabins have been built within the walls. Clonmore gives the inferior title of Baron to the Earl of Wicklow.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.