BALLYNAKILL, a parish

BALLYNAKILL, a parish, in the barony of COOLESTOWN, KING'S county, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (S. by W.) from Edenderry, on the road to Tullamore; containing 947 inhabitants. It comprises 3668 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act: about one-fourth part of the profitable land is arable, and the remainder is partly meadow and partly pasture; there are large tracts of bog, besides a considerable quantity that is exhausted; the state of agriculture is good. The Grand Canal passes through the parish, and there are limestone quarries within its limits. The gentlemen's seats are Ballymorin, that of D. Odlim, Esq.; and Ballylekin, of F. Lee, Esq. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Kildare, united to the rectory of Clonsast; the rectory is impropriate in Richard Garden, Esq., of Bath. The tithes amount to £157. 16. 11., of which £92. 6. 1 ¾. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar. In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly in the union or district of Edenderry, and partly in that of Clonsast or Clonbollogue. There is a private pay school, in which about 25 boys and 20 girls are taught. Here are the ruins of the ancient castle of Purefoy, one of the numerous small square buildings erected in this part of the country to protect the English pale.