KINNEIGH

KINNEIGH, a parish, in the western division of the barony of EAST CARBERY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 8 miles (N. W.) from Bandon, on the mail-car road to Dunmanway; containing 5708 inhabitants. This parish, which is said to have been anciently the head of a bishoprick founded by St. Mocolmoge, is bounded on the south by the river Bandon, and comprises 13,575 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £8204 per annum. About 10,000 acres are arable, 1300 pasture, 150 woodland, and 2000 waste and bog: the land, except towards the south, is cold, wet, and stony, and the system of agriculture, except on the farms of resident proprietors, is in a very unimproved state. The waste land is chiefly mountainous, but under a better system of husbandry a great proportion of it might be reclaimed and brought into profitable cultivation. The substratum is of the schistus formation, passing abruptly in the northern parts into every variety of transition rock; and towards the south is found slate of good colour and very durable. Near the village of Inniskeen are two quarries, in which more than 30 men are constantly employed.

The principal seats are Palace Anne, the residence of A. B. Bernard, Esq., a stately mansion beautifully situated in the midst of extensive improvements, and near the junction of a romantic glen and the vale of Bandon; Fort Robert, of Mrs. O'Connor, a handsome residence on an eminence above the vale of Bandon, at the eastern extremity of the parish; Gardeville, of the Rev. W. Hall.; Enniskean Cottage, of the Rev. W. Sherrard; Killyneas, of the Rev. I. Murphy; and Connorville, the deserted and dilapidated family mansion of the O'Connors. Here is a constabulary police station, and fairs are held in the villages of Inniskeen and Castletown which see. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Cork, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is partly appropriate to the vicars choral, and partly forms the union of Carrigrohane and the corps of the precentorship of the cathedral of Cork.

The tithes amount to £900, of which £225 is payable to the vicars choral, £225 to the precentor, and £450 to the vicar. The glebe-house is an old building; the glebe comprises 47 ¼ acres. The church, a small handsome edifice with a low tower and spire, was erected in 1791, by a gift of £500 from the late Board of First Fruits, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £274 for its repair.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is united to one-half of the parish of Ballymoney; there are two chapels, situated respectively at Inniskeen and Castletown. About 80 children are taught in two parochial schools, of which one at Castletown was built by Lord Bandon, who endowed it with two acres of land; the other at Inniskeen has a house and garden given by the Duke of Devonshire; to each the vicar contributes £5 per annum. There are also five private schools, in which are about 250 children, and a Sunday school. On an isolated rock of clay-slate, a few yards to the south-west of the church, is an ancient round tower, 75 feet high and 65 in circumference at the base, from which, for about 16 feet high, its form is hexagonal, and thence to the summit circular: it was damaged by lightning a few years since, and towards the south is a fissure from which several stones have fallen. About half a mile south of the church is an ancient fort, in the centre of which is a large flag-stone erect, and there are several of smaller size scattered over the parish.