Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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most valuable kinds of flat fish are taken in quantities
limited only by the want of a more extensive market.
Although herrings visit the coast yearly, the quantities
taken are comparatively insignificant, scarcely sufficing for
the home consumption: the season is from September to
Christmas. The coast abounds with various kinds of
shell-fish. The striking advantages of situation for the
fishery which the eastern coast possesses have not yet
been made fully available: the villages of Portally, Rath-
moylan, Ballymacaw, and Summerville, are principally
occupied by poor fishermen, who are also small farmers
and divide their time between both occupations. The
cause of the want of exertion in this class of men is the
deficiency of any shelter from the prevailing winds from
the south and south-west, to which this coast is greatly
exposed; in consequence of which the fishermen are
compelled to draw up their boats high on the beach in
foul weather, and in violent and sudden storms, having
no safe harbour to resort to, cannot fearlessly venture
to any great distance from the shore. These observa-
tions apply to the entire coast, with the exception of the
harbours of Waterford and Dungarvan. The commerce
of the county, consisting of the export of agricultural
produce and cottons, and of the import of timber, iron,
coal, and British and foreign manufactures and com-
modities of every kind, is almost wholly carried on in
the city of Waterford.
The principal rivers are the Suir, the Blackwater,
and the Bride. The Suir forms a great part of the
northern, and its estuary the whole of the eastern,
boundary of the county; it is navigable to the city of
Waterford for vessels of the greatest draught, and to Car-
rick-on-Suir for those drawing 11 feet. The Blackwater,
formerly called the Awendubh and Avonmore, “the Black
river” and “the Great river,” enters the county at its
western extremity and falls into Youghal bay; the Bride
from the west is a tributary to it: vessels of 100 tons’
burden can proceed to the confluence of these rivers.
The Blackwater is navigable for barges of 70 tons to Cap-
poquin, from which a canal was formed by the late
Duke of Devonshire to Lismore, a distance of three
miles; the Bride, which has a very slow current, and
is affected by the tide throughout the whole of its course
through this county, is also navigable for small craft.
The Neir is a tributary to the Suir. The principal of
the smaller streams which discharge their contents into
the sea are the Tay, Colligein, Mahon, Phinisk, Bricky
(which falls into the head of Dungarvan bay), Clodagh,
and Lickey. The principal line of inland communica-
tion is the mail road from Waterford to Cork, which
forms a trust and is called the military road: it is
kept in excellent order by the proceeds of the tolls.
Several new lines have been formed: the principal are,
a road from Dungarvan to Youghal; two through the
mountains from Dungarvan to Youghal; one from Cap-
poquin into the mountain region there; one from Water-
ford to Tramore, completed in 1836; one from Lismore
to Mitchelstown; one from Lismore to Clogheen, now
in progress; and one from the new Youghal line to
Ardmore.
The county presents vestiges of many periods of
antiquity, and of various character. At Ardmore is a
very perfect and beautiful ancient round tower. There
are remarkable raths on the hill of Lismore, at Rath-
gormuck in the parish of Kinsalebeg, near Youghal,
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and at Ardmore, the remains of which show it to
have been of great extent: many others of less note
are dispersed in various quarters. Circular intrench-
ments, consisting of a small area, defended by a ram-
part and fosse, and called in the language of the country
lis, “a fortified residence,” are very numerous, and
appear to form with each other branches from more
important stations that formerly existed at Waterford,
Lismore, Dungarvan, and Ardmore. One of the sepul-
chral mounts called in England “barrows,” and here
“duns,” is to the west of Dungarvan, and many others
occur in different parts. A large double trench, called
by the Irish Rian-bo-Padriuc, “the trench of St. Patrick’s
cow,” commences to the east of Knockmeledown, and
runs in nearly a direct line across the Blackwater, and
through the deer-park of Lismore, towards Ardmore,
being traceable for sixteen or eighteen miles; it corres-
ponds exactly with that extraordinary work called “The
Danes’ Cast,” which runs through the counties of Armagh
and Down. A second trench, which runs from Cappo-
quin, through the plain along the side of the mountains
westward into the county of Cork, is called by the
peasantry Clee-duff. There are cromlechs in the barony
of Gaultier, within five miles of Waterford; on Kil-
macombe hill; on Sugar-loaf hill, near Reisk; at Dunhill,
Gurteen, near Stradbally, and others in different places.
There appear to have formerly existed, within the limits
of this county, 24 religious establishments; but at
present there are vestiges of the buildings of those
only of Mothill, Dungarvan, Stradbally, Lismore, and
Ardmore. The castles and fortified houses were an-
ciently very numerous: there still exist (some of them
entire, and the rest in ruins) that of Lismore, one on
the Little Island, one at Crook, Cullen Castle, and those
of Carrickbeg, Ballyclough, Feddens, Clonea, Darin-
lar, Dungarvan, Modeligo, Kilbree, Strancally, Conagh,
and Castlereagh. The princely castle of Lismore, the
mansion of the Duke of Devonshire, and that of Curragh-
more, the seat of the Marquess of Waterford, with which
is embodied the ancient castle of that place, with the
other mansions and seats of the nobility and gentry worthy
of particular notice, are described in the accounts of the
parishes in which they are respectively situated. Chaly-
beate springs are particularly numerous in the barony
of Gaultier: the most efficacious are that at Monamin-
tra, and that near the “Fairy Bush.” The Clonmel
spa, on the Waterford side of the Suir, is a strong chaly-
beate; and the others of the same nature at all noted
are some very strongly impregnated between Dungar-
van and Youghal; that of Two-mile bridge; that of
Ballygallane, between Lismore and Cappoquin; one
between Knockmeledown and Lismore; and one at Kil-
meaden. The vitriolic spas are those at Modeligo and
Cross, the latter in the parish of Kill-St. Nicholas.
Among the natural curiosities may be noticed the
numerous caverns, of which the largest are on the
sea-coast. In the little bay of Dunmore is a small
fissure; and some distance westward is an immense
hole, called the Bishop’s cave, upwards of 100 feet long
and 24 wide; and though more than 80 yards from the
sea, it is approachable in a boat at high water. There
are several other caves in this neighbourhood, as at
Rathmoylan and Ballamacaw, and in Brownstown Head.
Others of great extent have also been worn by the waves
in the rocky shore of Ardmore. In the inland parishes