INVER

INVER, a parish, in the barony of LOWER BELFAST, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, adjoining the post-town of Lame, and containing 953 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the Larne water, and on the shore of Larne Lough, and is bounded on the east by the sea. It is said to have been at a very early period the site of a priory, of which the only remains are the present parish church. During the disturbances of 1798, many of the insurgents made their escape to this place after their defeat in the battle of Antrim. It comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 1773 statute acres, which are generally in a state of profitable cultivation; there is neither bog nor waste land. Inver Lodge is the seat of G. Whitla, Esq.; and Inver House, of Archibald Barklie, Esq. Here are some very spacious flour-mills, and adjoining them are extensive premises for bleaching and finishing linen cloth, of which 30,000 webs are annually bleached, exclusively of large quantities finished in their brown state. Iron-stone abounds, but is not worked, though every facility of conveyance is afforded by a safe harbour and good quay room. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor, forming part of the union of Carrickfergus and of the corps of the deanery of Connor; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Donegal. The tithes amount to £70, of which £40 is payable to the impropriator and £30 to the vicar. The church, formerly that of the priory, has been so disfigured with plaister, as to have lost all originality of character; it has been appropriated to the perpetual curacy of Larne, in the patronage of the Dean. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Larne and Carrickfergus. About 70 children are taught in the national school at Ballysnood. There are the remains of a small fort on the banks of the river, near the church.