Farran

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Farran
Irish: An Fearann
County Cork
Aglish church and cemetery (geograph 5003852).jpg
Ruins of Aglish church near Farran
Location
Grid reference: W495692
Location: 51°52’22"N, 8°44’1"W
Data
Population: 345  (2016)
Local Government

Farran is a village in County Cork, in the Barony of Muskerry East, on the south side of the River Lee twelve miles west of the City of Cork on the N22 road. The 2016 census recorded a population of 345.

The village has a primary school, creche and Montessori school, a church, community hall, and a number of small businesses.

Kilcrea Friary and Kilcrea Castle are historical sites in the area.

History

Farran lies within the ancient parish of Aglish (from the Irish Eaglais: 'church'). The mediæval parish church at Aglish is recorded in taxation records of 1199 as 'Magalaid',[1] and by 1482 was recorded as 'Agalasmaschala'.[2] The ruins of this church, which was built of stone and lime, still show the northern and western walls. The old graveyard is to the rear of the western gable.

Church

The current church at Farran is a Roman Catholic church was commissioned by the then parish priest in 1860,[3] replacing a smaller, temporary church which dated from the 1820s. It was built beside the road leading from Farran village to Aglish burial ground, funded by local subscription.[4] The church was built in a Gothic Revival style to designs by Matthew Ellison Hadfield and George Goldie of Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Farran Wood and the Clarke estate

Inniscarra Lake from Farran Wood

Farran Forrest Park (commonly called Farran Wood) is a woodland of 109 acres just north of Farran village. It is a public park operated by Coillte, and is spread out on the southern bank of the River Lee at Inniscarra Lake.[5][6] The National Rowing Centre is based here.[7]

Farran Wood was formerly part of a larger estate, formerly associated with the Matthews family and previously the Clarke family, the latter having been local landlords who came to Farran from Liverpool, Lancashire in the mid-19th century.[8]

Kilcrea

Kilcrea Castle

Kilcrea Abbey and Kilcrea Castle were both built in the 1460s by Cormac Láidir McCarthy. The ruins of the two structures lie in the townland of Kilcrea on the southern bank of the River Bride, a mile from Farran village.

It is said the last wolf in Ireland was killed in Kilcrea.

Among the people buried at Kilcrea Abbey are several generations of the MacCarthys of Muskerry. It was abandoned after the Reformation, before being occupied during the Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland.

Kilcrea railway station, located about half a mile south of Farran Cross, was formerly a stop on the Cork-Macroom line, and accommodated cargo and passenger trains. The station closed to passenger traffic in the 1930s and to goods traffic in the 1940s.[9] The station house can still be seen today and is still occupied. The road which runs alongside the station became known as Station House Road, which runs from the N22 towards Aherla.

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Farran)

References

  1. "Parishes of Muskerry". Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society (Cork Historical and Archaeological Society) 3: 111. 1894. "The parish of Aglish is given in Taxation 1199 as Magalaid [..] its old name was Maal, a corrupt form of the former word". 
  2. An Eaglais / Aglish: Placenames Database of Ireland
  3. Farran Roman Catholic Church, Farran, County Cork: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  4. "Schoolkids debunk Farran myth". The Corkman. Independent News & Media. 18 February 2010. https://www.independent.ie/regionals/corkman/news/schoolkids-debunk-farran-myth-27075176.html. 
  5. "Farran Forest Park". Coillte. https://www.coillte.ie/site/farran-forest-park/. 
  6. "Farran Forest Park". Cork Orienteering Club. http://www.corko.net/calendar/farran-forest-park. 
  7. "National Rowing Centre, Farran Wood, Co. Cork". Rowing Ireland. https://www.rowingireland.ie/national-rowing-centre-4/. 
  8. "Estate: Clarke (Farran)". Landed Estates Database. National University of Ireland. http://www.landedestates.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2854. 
  9. "Kilcrea station". Railscot - Irish Railways. http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf.