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tower bears a rude inscription, which, from the difficulty
of decyphering it, has given rise to various opinions,
but, on lately removing the moss and dirt, proves to be
in Latin, and purports that Donald Fitz Bohen, who
sleeps here, caused this work (probably the chapel) to be
done in 1453. In the choir are several very ancient
tombstones, one bearing the effigy of an abbot. Near
these ruins stands Ardfert Abbey, the mansion of the
Crosbie family, who have resided here since the reign of
Elizabeth, when Dr. John Crosbie, of Maryborough,
Queen’s county, was preferred to the bishoprick, and his
descendants successively attained the honours of Baron
Branden, Viscount Crosbie, and Earl of Glandore, now
extinct. Col. David Crosbie, son of the bishop, who
distinguished himself in the service of Chas. I., men-
tions, in his claims to Cromwell in 1653, that the Irish
had burnt his house at Ardfert, which had cost him more
than £1000 in building; (it appears, from an inscription
still remaining, to have been completed in 1635;) and
the original order by Col. Fitz Morice, for its destruction,
is among the MSS. in the library. The succeeding
mansion was modernised by the first Lord Branden in
1720, and has been greatly improved by its present oc-
cupant, Mrs. Crosbie: it contains an extensive library
of choice works and numerous family MSS., and in the
dining and drawing-rooms is a variety of paintings,
mostly family portraits. The park is well stocked with
deer; the gardens are extensive, and open into several
fine avenues of elm, lime, and beech trees.
ARDFIELD, a parish, in the barony of lBANE and BAR-
RYKOE, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles
(S. by E.) from Clonakilty, containing 2023 inhabitants.
This parish is situated on the south coast, and is bounded
on the east by the bay of Clonakilty; it comprises 2313 sta-
tute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued
at £2053 per annum. About four-fifths are under culti-
vation: there is very little waste land and no bog; the
poor bring the turf from Clonakilty. The soil, though
light and in some places very stony, generally produces
good crops. There are about 800 acres of land, called
the commons, wholly in the occupation of poor people
who have enclosed it; some of it is remarkably good,
and the whole is under cultivation. Indications of cop-
per ore appear at Duneen, and many excellent specimens
have been found: attempts to raise it were made several
years since, but the design was abandoned. There are
several large and handsome houses in the parish: the
principal are Dunmore, the seat of J, Beamish, Esq.;
Dunowen House, of G. Sandes, Esq.; the Tower, of Lieut.
Speck, R. N.; Greenfield, of H. Galway, Esq.; and Bal-
liva, of M. Galway, Esq. At its southern extremity
is Dunowen Head, off which lie the Shanbuee rocks;
and in the parish is Dunny Cove, where is stationed
the western coast-guard detachment within the district
of Kinsale. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of
Ross, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the rectory
is impropriate in M. Roberts and T. W. Foot, Esqrs.
The tithes amount to £203. 1. 6½., of which £110.15.4¾.
is payable to the impropriators, and the remainder to
the vicar. The church is in ruins; but divine service
is performed in a house fitted up for that purpose at
Dunny Cove. The glebe comprises eleven acres of ex-
cellent land, but there is no glebe-house. In the R. C.
divisions this parish is the head of a union or district,
comprising the parishes of Ardfield and Rathbarry, in
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each of which is a chapel; that of Ardfield is a low, plain,
but commodious edifice, situated on the commons. There
are schools in which 140 boys and 170 girls are taught,
also a school at Dunny Cove, a Sunday school un-
der the superintendence of the vicar, and one or two
hedge schools. The ruins of the old church are situated
on the highest point of land in the parish; and near
them is a building which during the war was used as a
signal tower, but is now the residence of Lieut. Speck,
who commands the coast-guard at Dunny Cove. Close
to the Cove are the ruins of a castle.
ARDFINNAN, a parish, in the barony of IFFA and
OFFA WEST, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUN-
STER, 4 miles (S. S. E.) from Cahir; containing 878 in-
habitants. The village extends into the parish of Bally-
bacon, and contains 316 inhabitants. The place derives
its name, signifying “the hill of Finian,” from an emi-
nence on which its castle was built, and from St. Finian
the Leper, who flourished in the latter part of the sixth
century, and founded here an abbey of Regular Canons,
to which, about the year 903, Cormac Mac Cuillenan, the
celebrated monarch and archbishop of Munster, be-
queathed one ounce of gold and one of silver, with his
horse and arms: it was plundered and burnt by the
English forces, in 1178. Here was also at an early
period a monastery for Conventual Franciscans, con-
cerning which there are no particulars on record. The
village is situated on both banks of the river Suir, which
is here crossed by a bridge of fourteen arches, and on
the mail coach road from Dublin to Cork, by way of
Clonmel. Within half a mile above the bridge, accord-
ing to McCurtin’s annals, Terlogh O’Brien, King of Mun-
ster, routed Terlogh O’Connor, Monarch of Ireland, in
1150, when O’Hyne, Prince of Fiachra, and O’Fflahertie,
Prince of West Connaught, were slain, with the greater
part of the monarch’s army. The castle was erected by
King John, when Earl of Morton and Lord of Ireland,
in 1184: it was a large rectangular pile strengthened
by square towers at the corners, and belonged to the
Knights Templars, on the suppression of which order
it was granted to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,
and subsequently to the Bishop of Waterford; its ruins
occupy a picturesque and elevated site on a rock over-
looking the river, and consist of the gateway and greater
part of the walls. From public records it appears that
this place had anciently a corporation: in 1311, 4th o.
Edw. II., a grant of “pontage for three years” was
made to “the Bailiffs and good men of Ardfynan,” at
the request of the Bishop of Limerick. In 1399, John,
Earl of Desmond, was drowned in crossing the ford here
with his followers, on returning from an incursion into
the territory of the Earl of Ormonde. The parish com-
prises 1081 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe
act: there are some limestone quarries, the produce or
which is chiefly burnt for manure. A fair, chiefly for
the sale of pigs, is held at the village on Feb. 2nd, and
it has a patent for two other fairs on May 17th and Nov.
19th. Petty sessions are held once a fortnight, and a
manorial court six times in the year; and here is a
station of the constabulary police. The living is a rec-
tory, in the diocese of Lismore, with the vicarage of
Neddins and the rectory of Rochestown episcopally
united, forming the union of Ardfinnan, in the patronage
of the Archbishop of Cashel: the tithes are £1701, and
the gross tithes of the benefice amount to £345. The