Gortroe

GORTROE, a parish, in the barony of Barrymore, county of Cork, and province of Munster, 2½ miles (S. by E.) from Rathcormac, on the road to Midleton; containing, with the parish of Desert, 2856 inhabitants; and comprising 8885 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £6046 per annum: about 1500 acres are bog and mountain waste, the remainder arable and pasture; the soil is in general poor. The principal seats are Ballinterry, the residence of the Rev.Archdeacon Ryder -, and Holly Hill, of S. Croker, Esq. It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Cloyne, united from an early period to the rectory and vicarage of Desert, forming the corps of the archdeaconry of Cloyne, in the gift of the bishop: the tithes of the united parishes amount to £415. 7. 8. There is neither glebehouse nor glebe. The church was built in 1826. In the R.C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Rathcormac, and contains a chapel. There is a parochial school of about 20 children, to which the rector contributes £5 annually, and a private school of about 60 children.[from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.]

"DESERT, a parish, in the barony of BARRYMORE, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, Ireland, now joined to the parish of Gortroe." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2018]