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BLA
Esq.; Carrigduve, of G. Sherlock, Esq.; Chiplee, of P.
Maylor, Esq.; Ballinure House, of W. Crofts, Esq.;
Lakeview House, of Miss Allen; Webbe Ville, of the
Rev. C. Tuthill; Mary Ville, of J. Lindsay, Esq.; Lake-
view, of P. Kearney, Esq., Templeville, of M. Murphy,
Esq.; Rose Hill, of G. P. Rogers, Esq.; Lakeview, of W.
Prettie Harris, Esq.; Temple Hill, of R. Hall, Esq.;
Rosetta, of G. Frend, Esq.; Dean Ville, of J. Mac Mullen,
Esq.; Knockrea, of A. W. Webb, Esq.; Barnstead, of
the Rev. W. R. Nash; Midsummer Lodge, of Miss Jones;
Clover Hill, of C. Connell, Esq.; North Cliffe, of J.
Mac Donnell, Esq.; Prospect Lodge, of C. Terry Crofts,
Esq.; Flower Lodge, of R. Mac Mullen, Esq.; Rockville
Cottage, of J. Cogan, Esq.; Clifton Cottage, of F. C.
Cole, Esq.; and Rock Cottage, of M. Smith, Esq.
Besides these seats there are numerous villas which are
let during the summer. The land is naturally very fertile,
and is for the most part enclosed in lawns, gardens,
and pleasure grounds; the rest, deriving from its con-
tiguity to Cork an abundant supply of rich manures,
and having the advantage of inexhaustible quarries of
limestone and plenty of sea sand, is in a high state of
cultivation, and supplies the Cork market with a large
proportion of its vegetables. The substratum is lime-
stone of excellent quality, which is extensively quarried
for various purposes: Between the fissures of the rocks,
near its junction with the clay-slate, are found numerous
amethystine crystals, some of which are very large and
clustery, and all are beautifully coloured; one specimen
in the Cork Royal Institution weighs more than 40lb.
The church, dedicated to St. Michael, serves as a
chapel of ease to the cathedral church of St. Finbarr,
Cork, and was built in 1827, at an expense of £2100,
of which £900 was given by the late Board of First
Fruits, £100 by the corporation of Cork, and the re-
mainder, with the exception of a few local subscriptions
and the sale of pews, was defrayed by the dean and
chapter, who appoint and pay the curate. It is a hand-
some edifice of hewn limestone, in the later style of
architecture, with a tower crowned with battlements
and pinnacles, and surmounted by a spire 60 feet
high, which, with part of the tower and the western
portion of the nave, was destroyed by lightning on
Jan, 29th, 1836, but has been restored by aid of a grant
of £310 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The
R. C. chapel, erected in 1821, is a large and handsome
building, and is a chapel of ease to the parochial chapel
of St. Finbarr, or the South chapel: it was begun at the
private expense of the late Dean Collins, aided by a
subscription of £300, and was completed and elegantly
fitted up by means of a bequest of £1100 from the late
T. Rochford, Esq., of Garretstown, part of which, in
1834, was expended in the erection of a house for the
officiating priest near the chapel. An Ursuline convent
was removed hither from Cork, in 1825: it was founded
in 1771, by the late Miss Honora Nagle, whose portrait
is in the visiting-room, and is the original of all the
institutions of this class founded in Ireland. The
community consists of 35 professed nuns and 6 lay
sisters, and is governed by a superioress, her deputy,
and a council of six. At this institution many of the
daughters of the R. C. gentry are instructed; and in
a separate building about 100 poor girls are gratuitously
taught and partially clothed. The convent has a
demesne of 42 acres, and is an ornamental building,
Vol. I.—209
BLA
consisting of a centre and two wings, with a frontage
of 350 feet. The chapel, which is in the east wing,
is fitted up with simple elegance and ornamented
with four Ionic pilasters supporting a pediment, on
the apex of which is a cross, and at each of the
other angles a vase. It contains a neat monument to
the Rev. Dr. Lyons, who was many years chaplain to
the convent. A school-house connected with St. Mi-
chael’s chapel was erected at Ballintemple in 1836; a
school for boys was built in 1834, at an expense of £160,
of which two-thirds were contributed by the National
Board, and the remainder by J. Murphy, Esq., of Ring-
Mahon Castle; and there is a school for girls, supported
by subscription. Here is a dispensary, and near Bal-
lintemple are two private lunatic asylums. Cittadella,
belonging to Joshua Bull, Esq., was established by the
late Dr. Hallaran, in 1798, and has secluded pleasure
grounds for the use of the patients. Lindville belongs to
Dr. Osborne, and is pleasantly situated in a demesne of
14 acres. A temperance society was established in 1835.
At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this penin-
sula, the Knights Templars erected a large and hand-
some church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of
that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill
abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain;
the burial ground is still used. There are fragments of
some ancient towers at Dundanion and Ring-Mahon, but
nothing of their history is known.
BLACKROCK, a village, in the parish of MONKS-
TOWN, half-barony of RATHDOWN, county of DUBLIN,
and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (S. E.) from Dublin
Castle j containing 2050 inhabitants. This place, which
is situated on the southern shore of Dublin bay, consists
of one principal street extending along the road from
Dublin to the head of the village, and continued along
the two roads which meet there from Kingstown, also
of several minor streets and avenues, containing alto-
gether 308 houses irregularly built, of which some are
in pleasant and retired situations. The village itself
possesses few pleasing features, but the country around
it is beautifully diversified, and the immediate vicinity is
embellished with numerous detached villas surrounded
with pleasure grounds disposed with much taste. Mari-
timo, the marine villa of Lord Cloncurry, and Blackrock
House, the residence of the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart.,
are beautifully situated; the Dublin and Kingstown
railway passes through the grounds of both these seats.
Carysfort House, the villa of the Right Hon. W. Saurin,
commands a fine view of the sea and of the mountains
in the neighbourhood; Newtown House, belonging to
W. Hodgens, Esq., is finely situated, and from the rear
is a noble view of the bay of Dublin. The other principal
seats are Montpelier House, that of J. Duckett, Esq.;
Mount Temple, of E. Brewster, Esq.; Frescati Lodge, of
H. Cole, Esq.; Field Villa, of H. C. Field, Esq.; and
Laurel Hill, of the Rev. Hugh White. Frescati, for-
merly the seat of the Fitzgerald family, a spacious man-
sion erected by the mother of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald,
called “Silken Thomas,” is now divided into four sepa-
rate dwellings, and occupied by respectable families.
The facilities for sea-bathing render this a place of great
resort during the summer months; several respectable
boarding-houses have been opened for the accommoda-
tion of visiters; and an excellent hotel, called Seapoint
House, has been built and fitted up for the reception of
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