Tullynakill

TULLYNAKILL, a parish, in the barony of CASTLEREAGH, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 3 miles (S. S. E.) from Comber, on the western shore of Strangford Lough, and on the road from Downpatrick to Belfast; containing, with the village of Ardmillan, 1386 inhabitants. It comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 2923¼ statute acres, including several islands in the lake. The whole of the land is arable and of excellent quality, and it is under a highly improved system of cultivation, producing fine crops of grain, potatoes and turnips. Some large limestone quarries, in which fossil remains abound, are extensively worked: the stone, which resembles porphyry, is conveyed both by land and water to all parts of the surrounding country. A manorial court with extensive jurisdiction and peculiar privileges was formerly held here, but it has fallen into disuse for many years. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Down, and in the patronage of the Bishop, to whom the rectorial tithes of the whole of the parish, which is bishop's land, are payable, and have merged in the rental; the vicarial tithes amount to £110. 10. 1. The church, erected in 1825, at an expense of £-830, a gift from the late Board of First Fruits, is a very neat edifice in the early English style. The ruins of the old church, built, or according to some accounts, rebuilt in 1636, are still visible. A private school affords instruction to 37 boys and 35 girls.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.