Clare Places: Parishes: Kiltonanlea: Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845

Kiltonanlea, or Doonas

A parish on the east border of the barony of Lower Tulla, and of Co. Clare, 3¼ miles south by west of O’Brien’s Bridge, Munster. It contains the village of CLOONLARA. Length, south-south-westward, 5 miles; breadth, 3; area, 7,627 acres, 1 rood, 19 perches,—of which 242 acres, 1 rood, 16 perches are in the Shannon. Pop., in 1831, 4,061; in 1841, 4,016. Houses 629. Pop. of the rural districts, in 1841, 3,797. Houses 598. The Shannon, partly winding in mazy folds, and in one place achieving the picturesque cataract of Doonass, traces the whole of the eastern, south-eastern, and southern boundaries, and combines with banks of wood and of varied outline to produce a series of interesting and even brilliant landscapes. The demesnes are numerous, well-kept, and well-adorned; but most of the land not within their limits is indifferent in quality and poor in appearance. The mansions on the Shannon are Snipe-lodge, Lucyfield, Errinic, Errina-house, Rose-hill, Waterpark, Summer-hill, Doonass-house, Landscape-house, and Belleisle-house; and those in the interior are Prospect-hill, Banard, Oakfield, Newtown, Elmhill, Springfield, and Mount Catherine. The canal of the Limerick and Killaloe navigation, and also the road from Limerick to Killaloe pass through the interior. The chief antiquities are the ruins of two castles, and of the old church of Kiltonanlea. —This parish is a rectory, in the dio. of Killaloe. Tithe composition, £341 10s. 9¼d. The rectory of Kiltonanlea, and the vicarage of KILLOKENNEDY, constitute the benefice of Kiltonanlea. Length, 10 miles; breadth 3¾. Pop., in 1831, 7,647. Gross income, £457 5s. 8¼d.; nett, £409 9s. 4¼d. Patron, the diocesan. The church was built about the year 1782, and received the accession of a gallery and a steeple in 1829. Sittings 200; attendance 95. The Roman Catholic chapels of Kiltonanlea and Killokennedy have an attendance of respectively 800 and 750; and , in the Roman Catholic parochial arrangement, are mutually united. In 1834, the Protestants of the parish and the union consisted of 233 Churchmen, and 6 Dissenters; the Roman Catholics of the parish and the union amounted to respectively 4,114 and 7,965; 4 daily schools in the parish—one of which received aid from Lady Massy— had on their books 176 boys and 101 girls; and there were 2 hedge-schools in Killokennedy. In 1839, the National Board granted £126 toward the erection of a boys’ school and a girls’ school at Coolastyke.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845
Courtesy of Clare Local Studies Project