Clonpriest

CLONPRIEST, a parish, in the barony of IMOKILLY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 2½ miles (S. W.) from Youghal, on the road to Cork; containing 3417 inhabitants. It comprises 6935 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £6334 per annum. A large portion of the land lies very low, but forms a valuable marsh, on which a great number of cattle are fed; and the remainder is in tillage, and produces excellent crops. Several of the farm-houses are handsomely and substantially built, and there is an extensive tract of bog, which affords abundance of fuel. A large quantity of butter is made here for the Cork market. There are some quarries of limestone and brown building stone, also a quarry of slate, of very indifferent quality. The tide comes up the Fanisk to Inchiquin Castle, admitting large boats and lighters.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cloyne, and in the patronage of the Crown; the tithes amount to £869. 2. 4½., and the glebe comprises 30 acres. The church is a very old and inconvenient building, situated at one extremity of the parish, and inaccessible during a portion of the winter; it is in contemplation to erect another on a more eligible site. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Youghal; the chapel is at Gartrough or Yurtroe. There is a school, -aided by an annual donation from Lord Ponsonby, in which about 140 children are instructed; also a private pay school, in which are about 80 children.

On the bank of the river Fanisk are the ruins of Inchiquin Castle, now called Inchiquin Tower, consisting of a round tower 9 yards in diameter, of which the walls are more than 12 feet thick: it is the property of Lord Ponsonby, and was formerly the head of a barony called Inchicoigne; it is still the head of a manor, for which courts are held at Killeagh, in the adjoining parish of that name.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.