Clare Places: Parishes: Kilmurry-Ibrickan: Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845

Kilmurry-Ibrickan

A parish in the barony of Ibrickane, 2¾ miles west by south of Milltown-Malbay, Co. Clare, Munster. It contains the villages of Mullagh and Kilmurry-Ibrickane. Length and breadth, exclusive of islands, respectively 8 miles and 4½; area, 25,857 acres, 3 roods, 28 perches,—of which 331 acres, 2 roods, 20 perches are in Lough Doo, 40 acres, 2 roods, 29 perches are in small lakes, and 160 acres, 1 rood, 12 perches are in sea-girt islands. Pop., in 1831, 8,433; in 1841, 10,747. Houses 1,652. Pop. of the rural districts, in 1841, 10,525. Houses 1,614. The parochial surface extends from side to side of the barony, or from the western declivity of Slieve-Callan to the Atlantic ocean; and by far the greater part of it is now a congeries of wild uplands, and now a dreary expanse of bogs, moors, and bleak pasture and arable grounds. Slieve-Callan on the eastern boundary has an altitude of 1,282 feet; Knocknaboley, 2 miles further south, has an altitude of 701 feet; a hill on the south-east corner has an altitude of 700 feet; Lough Doo, 1¼ mile north of the last hill and all within the parish, has an elevation of 281 feet; and the rivulet Annagh, the most northerly of the three streams by which the parish is drained, descends within the parochial limits from an elevation of 509 feet to sea-level. The coast is all rocky and iron-bound; and contains the headlands of Lurga and Caherrush. The principal islands are Enniskerry, Carrickaneetwar, Mattle, and Carricknola. Though several villas and mansional houses are sprinkled over the sea-board, scarcely one clump or belt of wood exists. The village of Kilmurry-Ibrickane stands 1 mile from the sea, and on the road from Milltown-Malbay to Doonbeg. Area, 14 acres. Pop., in 1841, 91. Houses 15. Fairs are held on May 17 and Aug. 25. This parish is a wholly impropriate rectory and vicarage in the dio. of Killaloe; and the vicars of Killara and Kilfarboy often officiate in it gratuitously. The Roman Catholic chapel has an attendance of 800; and is united to the chapel of Kilfarboy. In 1834, the Protestants amounted to 27, and the Roman Catholics to 9,029; and 7 pay daily schools had on their books 248 boys and 113 girls.

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