Rahugh

RAHUE, or BATHUE, or RATHUGH, a parish, in the barony of MOYCASHEL, county of WESTMEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4¼ miles (S. by E.) from Kilbeggan, on the road to Philipstown; containing 1129 inhabitants. A monastery was founded here in the sixth century by St. Aid, who died in 588. The parish comprises 3898 statute acres; the soil is in general light, and there is a small portion of bog; the state of agriculture is rather backward. A branch from the Grand canal at Ballycommon passes through it.

It is a vicarage, in. the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of Ardnurcher; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Downshire. The tithes amount to £101. 10. 9½., of which £64. 12. 3½. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar. In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union or district of Kilbeggan; the chapel is at Little Ross, and there is a meeting-house for Baptists at Rathugh. About 70 children are educated in three private schools.

At Rathugh are two large raths, or moats, from which this place derives its name, and there is a third at a short distance. One of these, which is very remarkable, is supposed to have been the mausoleum of a native prince. At Ballybroider are vestiges of an old fortified house, and of another at Little Ross.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.