CARRUNE, CARRON, or CARNE, a parish

CARRUNE, CARRON, or CARNE, a parish, in the barony of BURREN, county of CLARE, and province of MUNSTER, 6 miles (N. N. W.) from Curofin; containing 1045 inhabitants. It is situated on the road from Ennis and Curofin to Burren and New Quay, and is chiefly rocky pasture well adapted for sheep, of which the farmers' stock principally consists; a very small proportion is under tillage, which is slowly improving. Limestone abounds, and some copper mines were formerly worked, but are now discontinued. Columbkill Cottage, the neat residence of Terence O'Brien, Esq., and Tarmon parsonage, recently erected for the R. C. clergyman, are the only seats of importance. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Kilfenora; the rectory constitutes part of the sinecure union of Killielagh, in the patronage of the Marquess of Thomond; and the vicarage is part of the union of Noughaval, and the corps of the precentorship of the cathedral church of St. Fachnan, Kilfenora, in the patronage of the Bishop.

The tithes amount to £70 per annum, of which one-half is payable to the rector, and the other to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in whom the benefice is sequestrated. There is neither church, glebe-house, nor glebe. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms the head of a union or district, comprising the parishes of Carrune, Noughaval, and Kilcorney; there are two chapels, one at Crughville, in this parish, and one in the village of Noughaval. There are two pay schools, in which are about 90 boys and 60 girls. The parochial church is in ruins, and there are the remains of two other old churches at Crunane and Glanculmkil; the burial-ground of each is still used. St. Columb is said to have founded an abbey at Glanculmkil, which subsequently became the parish church; the bed of the saint, formed of stones, is still preserved as a relic. Some brass coins have been dug up here. Near St. Columb's bed is one of the finest springs in the country, but the water possesses no medicinal properties.