Ardagh

ARDAGH, a parish, chiefly in that of LOWER-SLANE, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, but partly in the barony of MORGALLION, 2 miles (E. S. E.) from Kingscourt; containing 2408 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated on the road from Drumconra to Kingscourt, and on the confines of the counties of Louth, Monaghan, and Cavan; comprises 3290 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which 2835 are arable, 324 are pasture, 112 are bog, and 19 woodland.

Here are extensive quarries of limestone, of which a large quantity is sent into the county of Cavan to be burnt for manure. The living is a perpetual cure, in the diocese of Meath, and in the patronage of the Bishop, to whom the rectory is appropriate; the tithes amount to £207. 6. 5½., which is payable to the Bishop.

The church is a plain edifice, built in 1805, for the repair of which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have lately granted £125. There is a glebe-house, with a glebe of ten acres. In the R. C. divisions this parish is united to Drumconra: the chapel, a plain building, is situated at Ballinavoren. There are three hedge schools in the parish. On the townland of Cloughrea are the remains of an old castle; and at the northern extremity of the parish, but principally in the county of Monaghan, there is a considerable lake, called Rahans.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.