KILRANELAGH

KILRANELAGH, a parish, in the barony of UPPER TALBOTSTOWN, county of WICKLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 3 ½ miles (E.) from Baltinglass, on the road from Dublin to Hacketstown; containing 1831 inhabitants. It comprises 4293 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which 1053 are mountain land, including Cadeen, which is 2155 feet high, and Kilranelagh hill, which rises to the height of 1289 feet: the land is chiefly in pasture. In the demesne of Kilranelagh is found porcelain clay, consisting of decomposed felspar, equal in purity to the Cornish china clay: granite and slate are abundant, and large masses of hornblende and a sort of greenstone frequently occur. There is a constabulary police station near Fort Granite.

The principal seats are Kilranelagh, the residence of F. W. Greene, Esq., which is in a well-planted demesne of 200 statute acres; Ballynrowan, of G. Cummin, Esq.; Fort Granite, of T. S. Dennis, Esq.; and Barraderry, of Vaughan Pendred, Esq. It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin, forming part of the union of Kiltegan: the tithes amount to £193. 16. 11.

In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Rathvilly, and has a chapel at Englishtown, where also are national schools for boys and girls. In the demesne of Fort Granite is a handsome school-house, with apartments for a master and mistress, built and supported entirely by the proprietor and his family, in which more than 80 boys and girls receive a strictly religious education; there is also an infants' school and dwelling-house for the mistress, at which between 20 and 30 children daily attend; and a Sunday school, held in the school-house, is numerously attended both by children and adults. A kistvaen was discovered some years since on the estate of Mr. Greene, in which was an urn containing bones, now in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. At Talbotstown, the property of W. Kirkpatrick, Esq., are the remains of a square fort with a large fosse, which must formerly have been of consequence, as it gave name to the barony; and there is a large old burial-ground.