Templetrine

TEMPLETRINE, a parish, partly in the "Western Division of the barony of EAST-CARBERY, but chiefly in the barony of COURCEYS, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 4 miles (W. S. W.) from Kinsale; containing 2180 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated on the southern coast, on the western side of the old Head of Kinsale, and near the entrance octo the bay of Kilbrittain, comprises 4519 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act. In the western part are three tracts of land, called Boggestown, Rochestown, and Hacketstown, containing respectively 100, 200, and 300 acres each; they extend in parallel directions to the sea, and were granted by Cromwell to the several parties whose names they still bear. The surface of the parish is very uneven, rising in some parts into considerable eminences; about 150 acres are woodland, 100 waste, and 50 bog, and of the remainder the principal part is under tillage. The soil is fertile, and the system of agriculture greatly improved under the auspices of the resident gentry and principal farmers, who have introduced the Scottish mode of husbandry: there are some quarries of excellent slate, which are but very indifferently worked, and also of a soft shaly schist, which is raised for repairing the roads and for inferior buildings. The principal seats are Garretstown, the residence of T. Cuthbert Kearney, Esq., a handsome house in beautiful grounds, laid out in terraces, gardens and shrubberies, with extensive plantations; Kilmore, of Miss Kearney; and Knockanroe, of A. Adams, Esq.

The population are occasionally employed in the fisheries' off the coast.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cork, and in the patronage of T. C. Kearney, Esq.: the tithes amount to £477; the glebe-house was built in 1821, on which occasion the late Board of First Fruits contributed a gift of £100 and a loan of £825; the glebe comprises 28 acres of good land. The church, a very neat edifice in the early English style, with a square tower, situated on the summit of a hill and forming a conspicuous feature in the landscape, was erected in 1821, at an expense of £900, a gift from the late Board of First Fruits.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called also Courceys, and comprising the parishes of Templetrine, Ringrone, and Kilroan; there are two chapels in the district. The parochial schools, near the church, consist of a centre, serving as a residence for the master, and two wings used as the schoolrooms, built in 1822 partly by a grant from the Lord- Lieutenant's fund and partly by the rector, by whom they are supported; and a female school at Garretstown is supported by the Misses Cuthbert. The late Thos.

Rochford, Esq., of Garretstown, bequeathed £1000 to the poor of Courceys barony, in which this parish participates in the annual distribution made according to his will. Near Garretstown is a chalybeate saline spring; and in the mansion, is preserved the collar of gold given by Queen Elizabeth to one of the Roche family, while he was Mayor of Cork, which has descended with the estate to T. C. Kearney, Esq. In the western portion of the parish are the ruins of the ancient church of Crohane, which, prior to the Reformation, belonged to the abbey of Timoleague; and between the church of this parish and Ballinspittle is a very extensive fort, with a treble rampart and intrenchments in a perfect state, where the Danes are said to have been first defeated by the Irish.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.