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POR
ing-house for Wesleyan Methodists. It is a station for
the constabulary police and for the coast-guard. A
male and female school, founded by the late Dr. Adam
Clarke, and supported by the Irish Missionary Society,
is kept in a large and handsome brick edifice with a
cupola and bell. A handsome hotel is now in progress.
Close to the town is a beautiful and extensive strand,
and at its southern extremity is a range of cliffs of white
limestone, in which are several extensive caves; near it
are some hills formed wholly of sand drifted by the
northern winds; some of these are of recent formation,
as the rich vegetable soil, bearing evident marks of
cultivation, can be traced beneath them. After a violent
storm in 1827, which swept away some of the sand,
the remains of an ancient town were exposed to view,
shewing the foundations of the houses, in which were
found domestic utensils, moose deer’s horns, spear
heads of brass, and other military weapons. In the
immediate neighbourhood is also a rock in which are
imbedded large and perfect specimens of the cornu
ammonis: various other species of fossils are fre-
quently discovered. A new line of road from this
place to Portstewart was made along the cliffs close to
the shore, and a railroad from it to Coleraine is in con-
templation.
PORTSHANGAN, or PORTNESHANGAN, a
parish, in the barony of CORKAREE, county of WEST-
MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (N. N. W.)
from Mullingar, on the mail coach road to Longford;
containing 463 inhabitants Lough Hoyle washes the
south-western parts of the parish, which comprises
2340 statute acres, mostly under tillage and pasture,
there being only a small quantity of bog. Here are
quarries of a fine black stone, used also for flags.
Petty sessions are held at Knockdrin every Tuesday.
On its eastern limits stands Ballinagall, the seat of
James Gibbons, Esq.; it is a modern mansion, erected
at a cost of £30,000, in one of the finest and most
richly wooded demesnes in the county. Woodlands is
the residence of W. Moxton, Esq., agent to Lord
Forbes; Mountmurray, of Alex. Murray, Esq.; and the
glebe-house, of the Rev. H. Daniell. It is a rectory,
in the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of
Portlemon; the tithes amount to £92. 6. 1½. The
glebe-house was erected in 1826, at an expense of
£784. 12. 4. British, of which £184. 12. 3¾. was a loan
and £415. 7. 8½. a gift from the late Board of First
Fruits, and £184. 12. 3¾. was a gift from J. Gibbons,
Esq.: there are two glebes, one of 5¾ statute acres,
valued at £5. 5.; the other of 4 statute acres, valued at
£10. 10., per annum. The church of the union is
in this parish: it is a handsome building, in the Gothic
style, surmounted with a spire erected in 1824, at an
expense of £2908, of which £1892 was contributed by
Jas. Gibbons, Esq., (who also gave the site), £277 by
Sir Richard Levinge, and £738 was a gift from the late
Board of First Fruits. In the R. C. divisions the parish
forms part of the union or district of Multifarnham.
The parish school is aided by subscriptions annually
from the incumbent and the Earl of Granard, and is
endowed with £700 by Mr. Gibbons, who built the
school-house, and £5 per ann. from Lord Forbes, who
gave the land. There is a private school also, in which
15 boys and 8 girls are educated. At Mountmurray
are remains of an ancient castle.
468
POR
PORTSTEWART, a sea-port and town, in the parish
of BALLYACHRAN, liberties of COLERAINE, county of
LONDONDERRY, and province of ULSTER, 3½ miles (N.)
from Coleraine, to which it has a penny post; contain-
ing 475 inhabitants. It is situated at the foot of a branch
of the great basaltic range of promontories, and com-
mands an extensive view of the estuary of the Bann, the
entrance into Lough Foyle, and the promontory of Down-
hill, with the peninsula of Ennishowen in the distance.
The exertions of the proprietors, John Cromie and Henry
O’Hara, Esqrs., have raised this place, in the space of a
few years, from a group of fishermen’s huts to a delightful
and well frequented summer residence. Its principal
street, which commands the view already described,
consists of well-built hotels and shops, having the
mansion of Mr. Cromie near its centre; at a little
distance to the south is another street of smaller houses,
and westward are a number of detached villas, lodges,
and ornamented cottages, chiefly built for bathing-lodges
by the gentry of the surrounding counties. In this
portion is a castle, built in 1834 by Mr. O’Hara, on a
projecting cliff over the sea, the road to which is cut in
traverses through the rock on which it stands, thus
giving it the character of a chieftain’s fortress of the
feudal ages. A mail coach passes through the town
every day; numerous vehicles ply to Coleraine; and
steamers frequently arrive from Liverpool, the Clyde,
Londonderry, and occasionally from Belfast. A mile
from the town is the parish church of Agherton;
divine service is also performed in a school-house in
the place. There are a meeting-house for Presbyterians
in connection with the Synod of Ulster, and a chapel
for Wesleyan Methodists. The town is plentifully sup-
plied with wild fowl, round and flat fish and herrings,
of which last one of the most productive fisheries is off
this port and on the coast of Ennishowen. The air here
is serene and pure, the scenery grand and picturesque,
the country well cultivated, planted, and embellished
with elegant mansions, the principal of which, besides
those already noticed, are Cromore, the seat of John
Cromie, Esq.; Flowerfield, of S. Orr, Esq.; Low Rock,
of Miss M c Manus; and Blackrock, of T. Bennet, Esq.
The vicinity presents a variety of objects of geological
interest, especially at the castle and near the creek of
Port-na-happel, where there is a rock of the colour and
appearance of Castile soap, which, on being burnt, emits
a sulphureous smell, and leaves a purple cinder: here
also are large layers of zeolite, steatite and ochre among
the rocks of basalt. Not far from the town is the old
channel of the Bann, from which the new channel has
shifted nearly a mile westward: between both are large
drifts of sand blown in from the sea, and covering many
acres of excellent land.
PORT-ST-MARNOCK, a parish, in the barony of
COOLOCK, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER,
7½ miles (N. E.) from Dublin; containing 482 inhabit-
ants. On a rock, close to the sea-shore, stands the small
gloomy castle of Rob’s-Wall, or Robuck’s Wall, founded
either in the 15th or early in the 16th century by Mac
Robuck, descended from Robuck de Birmingham, and
the head of a sept of this ancient family. The manor
belonged, from a very early period, to the abbey of St.
Mary, Dublin, and is now chiefly vested in a branch of
the Plunkett family. The parish, which is bounded on
the east by St. George’s channel, comprises 1729 statute