CLOYDAGH, or CLODY

CLOYDAGH, or CLODY, also called CLOGRENNAN, a parish, partly in the barony of Slieumargy, Queen's county, and partly in the barony of Carlow, but chiefly in that of Idrone West, county of Carlow, and province of Leinster, on the river Barrow, which is navigable to Waterford, 2 miles (S. W. by S.) from Carlow on the road to Leighlin-Bridge; containing 1422 inhabitants, and comprising 4737 statute acres, of which 290 are woodland, and 324 bog; the remainder is arable and pasture; 3764 acres are applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £3774 per annum. The state of agriculture is very good. Limestone abounds, and is applied both as manure and for building: there are limekilns on a large scale, the produce of which is chiefly conveyed into the counties of Wicklow and Wexford. Coal also abounds, and is worked extensively. Sessions are held quarterly at Milford. Here are extensive corn-mills and malt-kilns, in which about 100 persons are employed.

The principal seats are Clogrennan Castle, the residence of Colonel Rochfort; Milford, of J. Alexander, Esq.; Fonthill, of W. Fishbourne, Esq.; and Lenham Lodge, of Captain Butler. Clogrennan was formerly an estate of the Dukes of Ormonde, and gave the title of baron in the Irish peerage to the Earls of Arran. The castle was taken by Sir Peter Carew, in 1568, from Sir E. Butler, who was then in rebellion: in 1642 it was besieged by the Irish, but was relieved by Col: Sir P. Wemys; and here the Marquess of Ormonde mustered his forces prior to the battle of Rathmines. The ruins, overgrown with ivy and forming a remarkably picturesque object, yet exist, together with the remains of an old church, near the present house, which is approached through one of its gateways. The grounds, which are very beautiful, are bordered on the west by the mountains of the Queen's county, the sides of which are clothed with wood to a considerable height, and on the east by the course of the Barrow, adorned by several well-wooded islets. On Bawn-Ree, James II. encamped after his defeat at the battle of the Boyne. Some curious relics of antiquity, including brazen swords and arrow-heads, were found in a ford across the Barrow, about 1 ¼ mile distant, in 1819.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in Colonel Bruen and W. Fishbourne, Esq. The tithes amount to £276. 18. 5 ½., of which £92. 6. 1. is payable to the vicar, and the remainder to the lay impropriators. The glebe-house was built by a gift of £400 and a loan of £360 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1813; the glebe comprises six acres, subject to a rent of £4. 4. per acre. The church, a plain neat edifice in good repair, was built by aid of a gift of £500 from the same Board in 1803, and to the repairs of it the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently made a grant of £167. 5. 11. In the R. C. divisions this parish is in the union or district of Old Leighlin, and has a chapel. Besides the parochial school, there is one in the chapel-yard at Ballinabranna; the number of children in these schools is about 150; and in a hedge school are taught about 90 children. The ruins of the old church are in the demesne of Clogrennan; the cemetery is still used.