KILKEEVAN, a parish, in the barony of BALLINTOBBER, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT; containing, with the post-town of Castlerea, 10,867 inhabitants.
Some of the land is of good quality, and there are large grazing farms: there is a great quantity of bog, much of which is easily reclaimable, with very good limestone.
The principal seats are:
- Clonallis, the residence of the O'Conor Don;
- Arm Lodge, of W. Lloyd, Esq.;
- Dalefield, of J. Gray, Esq.;
- Southpark, of M. Balfe, Esq.; and
- Harristown, of Owen Young, Esq.
It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, forming part of the union and corps of the prebend of Ballintobber in the cathedral of Elphin; the rectory is impropriate in the Earl of Essex.
- The tithes amount to £450, of which £200 is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar.
- The church, which is at Castlerea, is a neat edifice, built in 1818, for which the late Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £2500, and has been recently repaired by a grant of £200 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
- The glebe-house was erected by aid of a gift of £100 and a loan of £850 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1821: the glebe comprises l4a. 3r. 30p., subject to a rent of £2. 6. 1-. per acre.
The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church, and has a large chapel at Castlerea.
About 1200 children are educated in 13 public schools, to nine of which Lord Mount-Sandford contributes from £10 to £40 each annually; and about 500 are educated in 10 private schools.
There are some remains of an abbey at Moor, also of a church at Kilkeevan, with a cemetery attached, which is the burial-place of the O'Conor Don family.
-See CASTLEREA.
