TULLYRUSK

TULLYRUSK, a parish, in the barony of UPPER MASSAREENE, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, 3 miles (E.) from Glenavy, on the road from Lisburn to Antrim; containing 2360 inhabitants. It comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 4779 ½ statute acres, chiefly under pasture; the land in the lower part is tolerably good, but in the southern part there is much unimproved and barren mountain: there are about 100 acres of bog at the Brown moss. The climate, from the position of the parish between Lough Neagh and Belfast Lough, is moist and chilly. The rivers Crumlin and Glenavy bound it to the east and west. The weaving of linens and cottons for the Belfast market is carried on to some extent in the farm-houses. Knockairn is the residence of Fortescue Gregg, Esq. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor, forming part of the union of Glenavy; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Hertford.

The tithes amount to £71. 1. 11., of which £15. 15. is payable to the impropriator, and £55. 6. 11. to the vicar. In the registry of Connor this parish is called a grange, and in the terrier and regal visitation book a chapelry; having been, probably, either a Bishop's mensal or a dependency on one of the great monasteries. The church of Tullyrusk stood in the townland of that name, near the verge of the parish; from the portions of its foundations still remaining, its dimensions appear to have been 62 feet by 17. Adjoining it is a large and well-enclosed cemetery, in which the Protestant dissenters and Roman Catholics chiefly bury. There are four private schools, in which about 140 children are educated; and two Sunday schools. Several raths and tumuli occur in various parts. The crystals commonly called Lough Neagh pebbles are found in great quantities on turning up the land by the plough, although the lake whence they take their name is three miles distant, and the elevation of the land where they are found is many hundred feet above the level of its surface.

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