EMLYFADD

EMLYFADD, a parish, in the barony of CORRAN, county of SLIGO, and province of CONNAUGHT, on the road from Boyle to Coolaney; containing, with the post-town of Ballymote (which is described under its own head), 4645 inhabitants; and comprising 9915 statute acres, chiefly pasture, with some bog. Agriculture is improving: there are quarries of good limestone in the parish.

The gentlemen's seats are Carrowkeel, that of F. Mac Donagh, Esq.; Drimrane, of J. Taaffe, Esq.; Temple House, of Colonel A. Percival; the glebe-house, of the Rev. J. Garrett; and Earlsfield, the property of Sir R. Gore Booth, Bart.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Achonry, united by act of council, in 1807, to Kilmorgan, Kiltora, Tumore, and Drumratt, together forming the union of Emlyfadd, in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate partly in Sir H. C. Montgomery, Bart., and partly in the Earl of Kingston.

The tithes amount to £407. 7. 7 ½., of which £168. 1. 6. is payable to Sir H. Montgomery, and £239. 6. 1 ½. to the vicar, from which latter sum the Earl of Kingston claims £40; and the gross amount of the tithes of the benefice is £710. The glebe-house was built by aid of a gift of £100 and a loan of £600, in 1810, from the late Board of First Fruits; the glebe comprises 20 acres.

The church, at Ballymote, is a good building in the early English style, remarkable for the beauty of its tower and spire; it was erected by aid of loans of £550, in 1818, and £1000, in 1831, from the late Board, and donations of £300 from the Earl of Orkney, and £100 each from the Bishop of Killala and E. S. Cooper, Esq. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £190 for its repair.

In the R. C. divisions this is the head of a union or district, also called Ballymote, comprising this parish and that of Kilmorgan, in each of which is a chapel; that in Ballymote is a large building. There is also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. In the parish are four public schools, of which the parochial school is aided by Sir R. G. Booth, Viscount Lorton, and local subscriptions, and in which about 420 children are instructed.

There are also two private schools, in which are about 100 children. The ruins of the old church, with its steeple, form a conspicuous object, from their elevated situation. An abbey is said to have been founded here by St Columb, over which his disciple, St. Enna, presided. On the edge of Temple House lake are the ruins of an old house, once inhabited by the Knights Templars; and near Ballymote is a fort of considerable elevation.