RATHRONAN

RATHRONAN, a parish, in the barony of IFFA and OFFA EAST, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, 1 ¾ mile (N.) from Clonmel, on the road to Fethard, containing 1010 inhabitants. The parish, which comprises 2543 statute acres, rests chiefly on a limestone substratum; the soil is very good, producing fine wheat and rich pasturage, without waste land or bog. A flour mill is situated on a stream which flows through the parish. Excavations have been made in quest of coal at an eminence called the Giant's Grave; the last shaft sunk in a black slaty rock passed through a thin bed of wavellite, at a depth of 40 feet; the proprietor is about to renew the experiment. Rathronan House is the elegant residence of Major-General Sir. Hugh Gough, K. C. B.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Lismore, and in the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire; the rectory is impropriate in John Bagwell, Esq.

The tithes amount to £203. 1. 6., of which £110. 15. 5. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar. The church, a neat building, was erected in 1825, on the site of the old church, at the sole expense of the lady of General Sir William Meadows, who endowed it with the interest of £1800, payable at the death of a Mrs. Meadows. At the Giant's Grave there is an upright stone, about eight feet high above the ground, on which two crosses are sculptured; that on one side of the stone is in raised relief, that on the other in has relief.