KILTEGAN

KILTEGAN, a parish, partly in the barony of RATHVILLY, county of CARLOW, and partly in the barony of BALLINACOR, but chiefly in that of UPPER TALBOTSTOWN, county of WICKLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (W. N. W.) from Hacketstown, on the road to Baltinglass; containing 3815 inhabitants, of which number, 136 are in the village. This parish comprises 15,681 statute acres, under an improving system of agriculture, and there is a large tract of bog and mountain land. Limestone gravel is burnt for manure, and granite is abundant. High Park is the residence of E. H. Westby, Esq.; the original mansion was burnt by the insurgents in 1798; the demesne, which comprises about 400 statute acres, contains some very fine old timber. Hume Wood is the residence of W. W. Fitzwilliam, Esq. The village contains 22 houses and a dispensary, and is a station of the peace preservation police, of which there is one also at Fortgranite. A patent exists for eight fairs in the year, but none are held.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin, episcopally united, in 1804, to the rectory and vicarage of Kilranelagh, and in the patronage of the Bishop by agreement with the Crown; the rectory is impropriate in Sir R. Steele, Bart.

The tithes amount to £516, of which £340 is payable to the impropriator, and £176 to the vicar; the tithes of the union amount to £369.16.11. Adjoining the church is the glebe-house, for the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits, in 1816, gave £400 and lent £370: the glebe comprises 20 acres, for which £2 per acre is paid. The church is a handsome edifice with an embattled tower and spire, erected by a gift of £500 and a loan of £320 from the same Board; it was enlarged in 1826, at an expense of £1200, half of which was defrayed by the Board, and has been recently repaired by a grant of £191 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Hacketstown, and has a chapel at Kilmoat. In the village is a school supported by the trustees of Erasmus Smith's charity; the school-house was built at an expense of £300; there are about 52 children of both sexes in the school. There is also a national school for males and females; the school-house is in the old chapel-yard. At High Park and Kilmoat are raths; on opening one at the former place, about three years since, an urn of coarse pottery was discovered, which contained ashes and bones. There are ancient burial-places on the townlands of Kiltegan and Drim.