CLONALLON, a parish

CLONALLON, a parish, in the barony of UPPER IVEAGH, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 6 miles (S. S. E.) from Newry; containing, with the town and district parish of Warrenspoint, 8630 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the bay of Carlingford, by which it is bounded on the south and west, and on the road from Newry to Rosstrevor, and comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 11,658 ¼ statute acres, of which about 200 acres are woodland, 150 bog, 200 mountain (including about 100 acres of bog on the summit), and 173 ½ under water; of the remainder, nearly two-thirds are arable and one-third pasture. A very extensive and lucrative oyster fishery is carried on, employing a great number of boats, and herrings are occasionally taken in large quantities. The gentlemen's seats are Narrow Water House, the residence of R. Hall, Esq., a splendid mansion of hewn granite quarried upon the estate, and built in the Elizabethan style; Drumaul Lodge, that of James Robinson, Esq.; and Clonallon House, that of the Rev. J. Davis. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Dromore, united by charter of the 7th of James I. to the rectory of Drumgath, together constituting the union of Clonallon and the corps of the chancellorship of Dromore, in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £450, and the gross annual value of the benefice, tithe, and glebe included, is £961. 10. The parish church is a very ancient edifice in good repair, and a church has been recently erected at Warrenspoint, which has been made a district curacy. The glebe-house is situated on a glebe of 190 acres of profitable land, valued at £339. 10. per annum. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recommended the dissolution of the union on the next avoidance, leaving Clonallon alone as the corps of the chancellorship.

The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church; there are three chapels, situated respectively at Mayo, Burn, and Warrenspoint. There are a handsome new meeting-house for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of Ulster, one for those in connection with the Remonstrant Synod, and one each for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. The parochial school is aided by the rector; and at Mayo is a national school, in which together are about 140 boys and 80 girls; and there is an infants' school of 30 boys and 40 girls. Here are the ruins of a square castle. Close to the ferry of Narrow Water, Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster and lord-deputy of Ireland, built a castle in 1212, which remained entire till 1641; but the present remains are more probably those of a castle erected by the Duke of Ormonde in 1663. Not far distant was a small spot surrounded by the sea, called Nuns'Island, on which were formerly considerable ruins; but the embankment now in progress for defending the channel has obliterated every vestige of them; they were probably the ruins of a religious establishment, which gave name to the island, or perhaps those of the castle of De Lacy.