Desertlyn

DESERTLYN, or DYSERTLYN, a parish, in the barony of LOUGHINSHOLIN, county of LONDONDERRY, and province of ULSTER, on the road from Dublin to Coleraine; containing, with part of the post-town of Moneymore, 3318 inhabitants. It comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 5561 statute acres, of which 4977 are applotted under the tithe act and valued at £3243 per annum. There are several bogs, and the soil is variable but generally good and well cultivated. The linen manufacture is connected with agriculture, and affords occasional occupation to the inhabitants. Coal and freestone are visible in several places, but the seams of coal are too thin to pay the expense of working, while turf is cheap. Limestone is also abundant and extensively worked. The principal seats are those of the Hon. and Rev. J. P. Hewitt, Rowley Miller, Esq., and James Smyth, Esq.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Armagh, and in the gift of the Lord-Primate: the tithes amount to £230. 15. 4½. The glebe-house was built in 1831, on a glebe of 200 acres. The church, which was built at Moneymore, in 1766, by aid of a gift of £424 from the late Board of First Fruits, is disused; and a beautiful church, in the Norman style of architecture, was erected by the Drapers' Company, in 1832, at an expense of £6000. In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly in the union or district of Lissan, and partly in that of Ardtrea. There is a place of worship for Baptists. In addition to the parochial schools, a large and handsome school-house at Larrycormick was erected and is chiefly supported by the Drapers' Company; there are two others within the parish. They afford instruction to about 320 children, exclusively of those in the Sunday school at Monemyore. The parish contains several raths, and a remarkable cairn on the top of Slieve Gallion.- See MONEYMORE.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.