MACRONY

MACRONY, a parish, in the barony of CONDONS and CLONGIBBONS, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 2 miles (N. N. E.) from Kilworth, on the road to Lismore; containing 2786 inhabitants. It comprises 8109 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £3509 per ann.; the land, though in general of an inferior quality, is chiefly under tillage, a large portion of the mountain waste having been lately brought into cultivation; there is a small portion of bog. Limestone raised in the adjoining parish is generally burnt for manure, and slate was formerly worked in the vicinity.

The river Araglyn, which separates this parish from Leitrim, winds through a vale covered on both sides with a dense wood of oak, chiefly planted by W. C. Collis, Esq. At the head of the vale, at a place called the Furnace, iron ore was formerly worked to a great extent and smelted on the spot, hut the timber becoming too valuable for fuel, the works were discontinued about 70 years since. There are two small corn-mills on the river employed in grinding oats. Near the Furnace, where the counties of Cork, Tipperary, and Waterford meet, is a station of the constabulary police, supported at the joint expense of the three counties. Castle Cooke, the seat of W. Cooke Collis, Esq., is beautifully situated on the Araglyn, in the midst of his extensive and valuable plantations. The parish is in the diocese of Cloyne; the rectory is impropriate in the representative of Messrs. E. & B. Norcott, and the vicarage forms part of the union of Kilworth; the tithes amount to £460, payable in equal portions to the impropriator and the vicar.

In the R. C. divisions also it is part of the union of Kilworth, and has a chapel, a small plain building, at Coolmahon. About 50 children are educated during the summer in a private school.