KILWAUGHTER

KILWAUGHTER, a parish, in the barony of UPPER GLENARM, county of ANTRIM, and province of ULSTER, 1 mile (W. S. W.) from Larne, on the road to Ballymena; containing 2016 inhabitants. This parish comprises 9803 ½ statute acres, of which 11 ½ are under water, about one-third is arable, and a very large portion mountain and waste land, particularly Agnew Hill, which has an elevation of 1558 feet above the level of the sea. The lands near the castle are in a high state of cultivation; there is some bog, and limestone and basalt are abundant. Kilwaughter Castle, the elegant mansion of E. J. Agnew, Esq., proprietor of nine-tenths of the parish, and for several centuries the residence of that family, is situated within a beautiful and extensive demesne. In the plantation above the castle is a place called Dhu Hole, a fissure in the limestone rock, into which falls a river that is nowhere seen again till it enters Lough Larne. There are some extensive cotton-mills in the parish, that formerly employed more than 1000 persons, but are now unoccupied; linen cloth is woven in some parts. It is a rectory, in the diocese of Connor, forming part of the union and corps of the prebend of Cairncastle in the cathedral of Connor. A perpetual curacy has been recently instituted, called the curacy of Cairncastle and Kilwaughter, which is endowed with the tithes of the latter parish, amounting to £90. The church is at Cairncastle; the glebe, in this parish, was purchased by the late Board of First Fruits, which also built an excellent glebe-house, in 1813. There is a small R. C. chapel at Craiganorn. About 200 children are taught in three public schools. The late Mr. Agnew bequeathed £10 per annum to the poor. There are some slight remains of the old church in the castle demesne.