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brownstone abound, and are worked to a considerable
extent for manure and building. At Araglyn are the
extensive woollen-mills of Mr. Paulet Higgins, for the
manufacture of broad cloth. The gentlemen’s seats are
Ballinacarriga, the residence of J. G. Pym, Esq.;
Douglas, of Henry Deece, Esq.; and Kilcrumper glebe,
of the Rev. T. Newenham, which is beautifully situated
on an eminence peninsulated by the Araglyn, the
Funcheon, and the Blackwater, and commands one of
the most luxuriant and picturesque scenes in the
county. The parish is in the diocese of Cloyne: the
rectory is impropriate in Messrs. E. & B. Norcott, and
the vicarage forms part of the union of Kilworth: the
tithes, amounting to £440. 3. 3., are payable in
equal portions to the impropriators and the vicar. In
the R. C. divisions it is partly included in the union or
district of Kilworth, but chiefly in that of Fermoy.
About 30 children are educated in a private school.
On a rocky eminence overhanging the Funcheon are
the extensive remains of the castellated mansion of
Ballyhindon.
KILCULLANE.—See KILKELLANE.
KILCULLEN, a parish, in the barony of KILCUL-
LEN, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER,
8 miles (S. S.W.) from Naas, on the mail coach road
from Dublin to Athy and Carlow; containing 2918
inhabitants. This place, which since the erection of the
new town of Kilcullen-Bridge, has been called Old
Kilcullen, derived its name from the foundation of a
church and monastery in the district of Coulan, of
which St. Patrick appointed St. Isernine bishop, who
died in 469 and was succeeded by St. Mactalius. The
monastery and the town which grew up around it were
plundered repeatedly by the Danes, between the years
883 and 1037; but after the English obtained a settle-
ment in the country, the town was fortified and greatly
increased in importance. Soon after the invasion, a
castle was erected here by the Fitzmartins, which after-
wards became the property of the Fitz-Eustace family,
of whom Thomas Fitz-Eustace, afterwards Viscount
Baltinglass, was created Baron of Kilcullen by Hen.
VIII. Previously to the year 1319, the town was sur-
rounded with strong walls and defended by seven gates,
but Maurice Jaques having in that year built a bridge
over the river Liffey, about two miles from this place,
the town of Kilcullen-Bridge began rapidly to increase,
and the ancient town to decline. During the civil war
this castle was garrisoned for the parliamentarians, in
1641, but was taken two years afterwards by the
Marquess of Ormonde. In the same year, the commis-
sioners appointed to treat for a cessation of hostilities
assembled here, but afterwards adjourned to Jiggins-
town, near Naas, and in 1647 the castle was taken and
burnt by the parliamentarians. In the disturbances of
1798, a large number of the insurgents posted them-
selves in the churchyard, on the summit of a very steep
hill, and Capts. Erskine and Cookes, who advanced to
dislodge them, were killed in the attempt, and their
party repulsed. The insurgents afterwards assembled
in great numbers on the heights above the town, from
which they were driven with great loss by Gen. Dundas,
who was stationed here, and several thousands of them
subsequently surrendered to him on the hill of Knock-
awlin, about a mile distant, where they had occupied
an intrenched camp. The town, which stood on a
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bleak eminence in a very commanding position, is now
only an insignificant village; its market, which belongs
by patent to the Rev. Thomas O’Moore, has been re-
moved to Kilcullen-Bridge, but fairs are still held here
on June 22nd and Oct. 3rd.
The parish comprises 6619 statute acres, of which
more than four-fifths are in tillage, and the remainder,
with the exception of a small portion of woodland
and exhausted bog, is in pasture. The soil is fertile,
and the lands are in a high state of cultivation; the
system of agriculture has, within the last 15 years,
been very greatly improved, and the surrounding sce-
nery is pleasingly diversified. Castle-Martin, the ele-
gant residence of W. H. Carter, Esq., occupies the
site of the ancient castle of the Fitz-Martins, near
Kilcullen-Bridge: the present mansion was occupied
by the king’s troops as a barrack, in 1798; it is sur-
rounded with a highly improved and richly wooded
demesne. Halverstown, the seat of P. Purcell, Esq., is
finely situated in the midst of extensive and thriving
plantations, which, covering an elevated part of the
demesne, are a great ornament to a large tract of
country around. The living is a vicarage (otherwise
called a perpetual curacy), in the diocese of Dublin,
united, in 1833, to the impropriate curacies of Davids-
town, Giltown, and Brannickstown, together forming
the impropriate or perpetual curacy of Kilcullen; the
rectory is partly appropriate to the precentorship, but
chiefly united to the half rectory of Glasnevin, together
constituting the corps of the chancellorship of the
cathedral of Christchurch, Dublin, in the patronage of
the Crown. The tithes amount to £332. 6. 10., of
which £37. 6. 6. is payable to the precentor, £197. 6. 5.
to the chancellor, and £97. 13. 11. to the perpetual
curate. The church, for the erection of which the late
Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £1000, is under-
going an enlargement, which will render it cruciform,
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners having granted £238.
Divine service is also performed during the summer
in a school-house at Calvertstown. The glebe-house
is a neat building, and the glebe comprises 20 acres.
The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Es-
tablished Church; there is a chapel at Gormanstown,
and also at New Abbey; the latter stands within the
cemetery, and is built partly with the materials of
the ancient abbey, some of the ornamental sculptures
of which are preserved in the present building. About
430 children are taught in five public schools, of
which one was built by a bequest of £100 from the
Rev. Kildare Burrowes, and is aided by donations from
the Rev. J. Burrowes and Mrs. Purcell; and there is
also a Sunday school. There are still some remains of
New Abbey, founded in 1460 for Franciscans of the
Strict Observance, by Sir Rowland Fitz-Eustace, many
years Lord Chancellor and Treasurer of Ireland. After
its dissolution it was granted, in 1582, by Queen
Elizabeth to the poet Spenser; and though the tower
fell in 1764, and a great portion of the materials was
used in building the R. C. chapel, the ruins are still
highly interesting. The tomb of the founder and his
lady are still visible in the churchyard, but so deeply
sunk in the ground that the inscription, ascribing the
foundation of the abbey to Rowland Fitz-Eustace, who
died Dec. 19th, 1496, can with difficulty be read. In
the churchyard at Old Kilcullen are the remains of a