MARHYN

MARHYN, MAURHIN, or MARHIR, a parish, in the barony of CORKAGUINEY, county of KERRY, and province of MUNSTER, 5 ½ miles (W. N. W.) from Dingle, on the southern shore of Smerwick harbour, on the western coast; containing 978 inhabitants. It comprises 5568 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which a considerable portion is in tillage, and the remainder consists of coarse pasture and bog. Some of the inhabitants are employed in the fishery of the bay.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe, episcopally united, in 1669, to the vicarage of Donquin, together constituting the union of Marhyn, in the patronage of Lord Ventry, in whom the rectory is impropriate: the tithes amount to £75, payable in equal portions to the impropriator and the vicar; and the entire tithes of the benefice to £75.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Keel, or Terreter. About 100 children are taught in two private schools. The ruins of the church still remain in the burial-ground, which is generally used. On the hill of Ballyneanig is a druidical circle, and at a short distance to the south-east are two large upright stones; in the vicinity are the remains of a stone cell of great antiquity, also an old castle built by one of the Desmond family, afterwards the residence of the Moriarties; and on the destruction of the sand banks at Ballyneanig, some years since, vestiges of an ancient encampment were discovered.