Grenagh

GRENAUGH, or GRANAGH, a parish, in the barony of BARRETTS (except the ploughland of Ballymartin, which is in the barony of East Muskerry), county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 7½ miles (N. N. W.) from Cork, on the new lines of road to Kanturk and Mallow; containing 5043 inhabitants. It comprises 13,250 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act 4 R and valued at £5466 per annum. The surface is very uneven, and the substratum is entirely clay-slate. Agriculture is gradually improving under the spirited example of St. John Jefferyes, Esq., but the old heavy wooden plough is still in use in many parts, particularly towards the mountains. Here are more than 400 acres of bog, and 600 of barren mountain. Here is a woollen factory, which was built in 1806, and is worked by a mountain stream. Grenagh is the residence of H. Low, Esq. 

It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Cloyne, forming part of the union of Garrycloyne: the tithes amount to £1050; there is a glebe of 15 acres. In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Mourne, or Ballinamona, and has a large plain chapel at South Grenagh. The parochial schools are supported by the rector, and there are three private schools, at which about 240 children attend during the summer. At Dawestown is an extraordinary flowering lime tree, with 16 very large and wide-spreading branches. The gables and side walls of the church are nearly entire; and there are remains of druidical altars at Lyradan, Knockantoha, and Glauncoum, and several forts and raths.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.