Barnahely

BARNAHELY, a parish, in the barony of KERRYCURRIHY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 2 miles (N. E. by E.) from Carrigaline: containing 1022 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the south-west shore of Cork harbour, and was anciently part of the possessions of Gill abbey: it comprises 882¾ statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £1025 per annum, and is almost entirely under tillage, which is gradually improving. There is no waste land: a tract of marshy land on the estate of Castle-Warren has been lately reclaimed and is now applied to grazing.

There are some valuable limestone quarries, which are worked chiefly for burning. Ringaskiddy, or Ring, a small village on the shore, is resorted to in summer for seabathing: the building of boats and yachts is carried on here to some extent, and during the winter season a considerable number of yawls are engaged infishing. Ballybricken, the elegant mansion and demesne of D. Conner, Esq., is delightfully situated on the margin of the harbour, of which it commands a most beautiful view, and from which the grounds rise with a gentle acclivity, and are. embellished with a profusion of fine timber. Prospect Villa, the elegant residence of Lieut.-Col. Burke, is situated a little to the east of it; the grounds are well planted, and these two seats form prominent and attractive objects in every view of the harbour, Castle-Warren, the seat of R. Warren, Esq., is a spacious mansion erected in 1796, and incorporated with the ancient castle of Barnahely, said to have been built by Milo de Cogan, one of the early Norman settlers, who obtained extensive grants in this county, and is represented by local tradition to have been interred in the churchyard of this parish: the castle, of which a portion remains, belonged to the archdeacons of Monkstown in the middle of the 17th century. Raffeen is the seat of T. Dorman, Esq.; and there are several ornamental cottages which contribute to embellish the scenery of this beautiful district.

The parish is in the diocese of Cork: the entire tithes, amounting to £100, are impropriate in the Earl of Shannon. The Protestant inhabitants attend divine service at the church, of Carrigaline. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Passage; the nearest chapel is that of Shanbally, in the parish of Carrigaline. The only school is a hedge school, in which 90 children are taught. There is a Danish fort in good preservation on the lands of Prospect Villa; and as some labourers employed in the construction of a new line of road were cutting through a limestone rock, a short time since, they discovered in its cavities a number of marine shells, at a distance of at least two miles from the nearest part of the strand. There is a chalybeate spa at Raffeen, which has been found efficacious in cases of dyspepsia, and is exceedingly valuable as a tonic diuretic.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.