LACKAN, a parish, in the barony of TYRAWLEY, county of MAYO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 4 ½ miles (N. W.) from Killala, on the north-western coast; containing 2911 inhabitants. The land is partly under tillage and partly in pasture, but there are large tracts of bog and reclaimable mountain, and some fine quarries of freestone, limestone, and slate. Copper is supposed to exist at Castlerea, and there is a fine fishery at Baltra.
The principal seats are:
- Castle Lackan, the residence of C. N. Knox, Esq.;
- the glebe-house, of the Rev. G. Birmingham;
- Curramore, of R. Palmer, Esq.;
- Heathfield, of O. Bourke, Esq.; and
- Lissadrone, of A. Pugh, Esq., which commands views of the bay of Killala and of the Sligo, Leitrim, and Donegal mountains, and in the grounds of which are 9 Danish forts and a very strong chalybeate spring.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Killala, episcopally united to those of Templemurry and Kilcummin, and in the patronage of the Bishop;
- the rectory forms the corps of the prebend of Lackan in the cathedral of Killala.
- The tithes amount to £220, of which £100 is payable to the prebendary, and the remainder to the vicar: the entire tithes of the benefice amount to £241.
- There is a glebe-house, with a glebe of 3la. 1r. The church is a small ancient building.
In the R. C. divisions, it is the head of a union or district, comprising this parish and Kilcummin, and has a chapel at Lackan.
Here is a public school of about 60 children, endowed with £20 per annum by Mrs R. Palmer; also a private school, in which about 80 children are educated.
SOURCE: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (pub 1837)
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