Inishmacsaint, FER IRL — —
Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844]:

INNISMACSAINT, or ENNISMACSAINT, a par-
ish, partly in the barony of Tyrhugh, co. Donegal,
but chiefly in the barony of Magheraboy, co. Fer-
managh, Ulster. The Donegal section contains the
villages of Bundoran and Single-Street, and part of
the town of BALLYSHANNON ; and the Fermanagh
section contains the village of DERRYGONNELLY, and
a small section of CHURCHILL : see these articles.
Length of the parish, 20 miles ; breadth, 4. Area
of the co. Donegal section, 7,126 acres, 3 roods, 30
perches, —of which 27 acres, 3 roods, 10 perches are
in the river Erne. Area of the Fermanagh section,
45,867 acres, 32 perches, —of which 886 acres, 2
roods, 10 perches are in part of Lough Melvin, 587
acres, 2 roods, 11 perches are in the river Erne and in
small lakes, and 8,002 acres, 3 roods, 39 perches are
in part of Lower Lough Erne. Pop. of th whole,
in 1831, 14,874;* in 1841, 14,693. Houses 2,585.
Pop. of the Fermanagh section, in 1831, 8,254 ; in
1841, 9,124. Houses 1,599. Pop. of the rural
districts of the Donegal section, in 1841, 3,866.
Houses 690. The surface, with the exception of
some insulated ground in Lower Lough Erne, con-
sists of a belt or band of country, extending along
the left bank of Lower Lough Erne and the river
Erne, from a point 5½ miles below Enniskillen, away
to Lough Melvin and Donegal bay below the em-
bouch of Ballyshannon Harbour ; and, in nearly all
its distinctive character, as to contour and scenery,
it has already been noticed in the article
ERNE : which see. About one-fifth is irreclaimable
mountain and bog ; about one-fifth is pastoral moun-
tain ; and the remainder is good land, partly pas-
toral and partly arable. The road from Enniskillen
to Ballyshannon passes down the margin of the lake.
Mr. Fraser, noticing the most interesting parts of
the route along that road and within the parish,
says, “Churchill is a village on the top of one of
the numerous ridges which rise, summit over sun-
mit, till they blend with the more elevated and
westerly hills of Shean and Glenalong. A little to
the south of the village of Churchill are the small
but romantically situated loughs of Carrick and
Bunnahone, the sources of the Sillies River. * *
From the glebe-house of Churchill to the church of
Ruscar, our road continues along the shores of the
lake, and discloses at every turn some new and
striking combination of wood and water on the one
hand, or hill and dale on the other. At two miles
from the glebe, we reach the rocky dell of Phoul-a-
Phouca, which forms a part of the wild and pictu-
esquely broken acclivities of Shean-North, the most
remarkable for its elevation and shape of the hills
along the whole course of the Erne. As the most
extensive, if not the best views of the Lower Lough,
its shores, and islands, are obtained from the emi-
nences near Phoul-a-Phouca, we would recommend
the tourist, anxious to know the topography of the
district, to ascend the steeps of Shean. In addition
to the views of Lough Erne, its islands and boun-
daries, &c., the tourist will be gratified with the
mountain-scenery and the numerous small glistening
tarns which are scattered along the dreary moor-
lands lying westward between the hills of Shean-
North and Glenalong.” The summits of Glenalong
and North Shean have altitudes above sea-level of
respectively 795 and 1,135 feet. The island of In-
nismacsaint, which gives name to the parish, is
situated in Lough Erne, about half-a-mile from the
shore, and 3 miles east-south-east of Churchill ; and
was the site of a somewhat famous abbey, which
monastic writers allege to have been founded early
in the 6th century by St. Nenn or Nernid of the
blood royal of Ireland. “The saint’s bell, orna-
mented with gold and silver,” says Archdale, “is
yet preserved here as a precious relique, and is
holden in so great veneration amongst the lower
class of people, that it is often judicially tendered
them to swear on.” The abbey-church was even-
tually made parochial ; but was superseded, in the
reign of Queen Anne, by a church on the mainland ;
and this, in its turn, was recently superseded, and
is now in a state of ruin. —This parish is a rectory,
and a separate benefice, in the dio. of Clogher.
Tithe composition, £500 ; glebe £321 19s. 8½d.
Gross income, £821 19s. 8½d.; nett, £685 13s. 8½d.
Patron, the Marquis of Ely. Three curates have
each a salary of £60 4s. 7½d., and a small amount
of marriage-fees. The parish church was built in
1831, by means of a loan of £1,384 12s. 3½d.
from the late Board of First Fruits. Sittings 400 ;
attendance 250. Two chapels-of-ease at Slavan and
Finnar can each accommodate 180 persons, and have
an attendance of respectively 80 and 25 ; but the
summer attendance at Finnar, in consequence of the
vicinity of the bathing-place at Bundoran, rises far
beyond 25, which is the winter attendance. Two
school-houses connected with the Establishment,
in the districts of Churchill and Slavan, have an
attendance of respectively 45 and 30. A Methodist
meeting-house in Churchill is attended by 50 ; a
Primitive Methodist meeting-house at Cosbystown,
by 60 ; and another Methodist meeting-
house, by 70. The Roman Catholic chapels of Rus-
car and Knockaraven, have an attendance of respec-
tively 650 and 850 ; the Roman Catholic chapels of
Bundoran and Carrickbeg have each an attendance of
800 ; and, in the Roman Catholic parochial arrange-
ment, each of these two pairs of chapels are mutu-
ally united. In 1834, Protestants amounted to
3,756, and the Roman Catholics to 10,324 ; 5 Sun-
day schools at Churchill, Bundoran, Conagher,
Blackslieve, and Cosbystown, were attended, on the
average, by 194 children ; and 24 daily schools—
three of which were in connection with the London
Hibernian Society, one with the Kildare Place
Society, and one with the Association for Discoun-
tenancing Vice — had on their books 819 boys and
408 girls.
—————————————————————–
* The Ecclesiastical Authorities state the pop., in 1831, at
13,778.

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