Inistioge

"Inistioge", an incorporated market and post-town (formerly a parliamentary borough), and a parish, in the barony of Gowran, county of Kilkenny, and province of Leinster, 13 miles (S.) from Kilkenny, and 63 (S.) from Dublin, on the mail coach road to New Ross; containing 3221 inhabitants, of whom 1000 are in the town. This place, which is situated on the river Nore, was at an early period distinguished for its religious establishments. An abbey is said to have been founded here about the year 800; but that to which the town was more especially indebted for its origin and early importance was an Augustinian monastery, founded in 1210 by Thomas, son of Anthony, Seneschal of Leinster, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. Columb. The parish comprises 9620 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which about 800 are woodland, 800 waste and bog, and the remainder arable and pasture. The surrounding scenery is extremely varied and beautiful, and the banks of the Nore are richly diversified with features of a picturesque and romantic character. Woodstock, the seat of W. F. Tighe, esq., is a spacious and elegant mansion, finely situated in a demesne of nearly 1500 statute acres spreading along the margin of the Nore. The ruins of the castles of Brownsford and Clowen are in this parish. The other seats are Firgrove and Ballyduff. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Ossory; one-half of the rectory is impropriate in Sir Wm. Cox, Bart., and the other is annexed to the vicarage of Cloneamery, and in the patronage of the Bishop. The glebe-house is a handsome residence, and the glebe comprises 10 acres. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms is the head of a union or district, comprising also those of Cloneamery and Roer, in which are four chapels; the chapel of this parish has been taken down, and a handsome new one is being erected.
[From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)]