In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Ardfield like this:
ARDFIELD, a parish, in the barony of IBANE and BARRYROE, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (S. by E.) from Clonakilty, containing 2023 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the south coast, and is bounded on the east by the bay of Clonakilty; it comprises 2313 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £2053 per annum. ...
About four-fifths are under cultivation: there is very little waste land and no bog; the poor bring the turf from Clonakilty. The soil, though light and in some places very stony, generally produces good crops. There are about 800 acres of land, called the commons, wholly in the occupation of poor people who have enclosed it; some of it is remarkably good, and the whole is under cultivation. Indications of copper ore appear at Duneen, and many excellent specimens have been found: attempts to raise it were made several years since, but the design was abandoned. There are several large and handsome houses in the parish: the principal are Dunmore, the seat of J. Beamish, Esq.; Dunowen House, of G. Sandes, Esq.; the Tower, of Lieut. Speck, R. N.; Greenfield, of H. Galway, Esq.; and Balliva, of M. Galway, Esq. At its southern extremity is Dunowen Head, off which lie the Shanbuee rocks; and in the parish is Dunny Cove, where is stationed the western coast-guard detachment within the district of Kinsale.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Ross, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the rectory is impropriate in M. Roberts and T. W. Foot, Esqrs. The tithes amount to £203. 1. 6 ½., of which £110. 15. 4 ¾. is payable to the impropriators, and the remainder to the vicar. The church is in ruins; but divine service is performed in a house fitted up for that purpose at Dunny Cove. The glebe comprises eleven acres of excellent land, but there is no glebe-house.
In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising the parishes of Ardfield and Rathbarry, in each of which is a chapel; that of Ardfield is a low, plain, but commodious edifice, situated on the commons. There are schools in which 140 boys and 170 girls are taught, also a school at Dunny Cove, a Sunday school under the superintendence of the vicar, and one or two hedge schools. The ruins of the old church are situated on the highest point of land in the parish; and near them is a building which during the war was used as a signal tower, but is now the residence of Lieut. Speck, who commands the coast-guard at Dunny Cove. Close to the Cove are the ruins of a castle.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Ardfield, in and County Cork | Map and description, A Vision of Ireland through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofireland.org/place/30093
Date accessed: 02nd November 2024
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