DUNSFORD, or DUNSPORT

Samuel Lewis

A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland

1837

DUNSFORD, or DUNSPORT, a parish, in the barony of LECALE, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 3 ½ miles (E. S. E.) from Downpatrick; containing 1680 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated near the southern entrance to Strangford Lough, comprises, with Guns island, according to the Ordnance survey, 4239 statute acres, all under cultivation, except 40 acres of bog, and very fertile, much grain being exported from the stores at Ballyhornan, where small vessels land coal. Guns island lies off the coast, which is bold and rocky, and includes Killard Point. The parish is in the diocese of Down, and is a rectory, forming the corps of the prebend of Dunsford in the cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £382, of which £263 is payable to the incumbent and £139 to the impropriators. The church is a small plain edifice with a bell tower. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district comprising this parish and Ardglass, and contain.ing two chapels, of which the one for Dunsford is at Ballydock. About 350 children are educated in four public schools.

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