an inland county of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, bounded N. by Tyrone, E. by Armagh and Louth, S. by Louth and Cavan, and W. by Cavan and Fermanagh. It comprises an area of 500 square miles, or 319,757 acres, of which 285,885 are arable, 21,585 uncultivated, 5816 in plantations, 304 in towns, and 6167 are under water; of the 21,000 acres of uncultivated land 14,500 are situated at elevations exceeding 800 feet, the remainder consisting chiefly of small detached bogs and marshy lands on the margins of lakes. About 7000 acres are capable of improvement by cultivation, 8000 acres might be improved by draining, and 6000 acres may be considered as incapable of improvement.
The general appearance of the surface is hilly, yet not rising into heights of considerable elevation. The principal mountain range is that of Slievebeagh, a rugged and barren tract, extending south-westward along the Tyrone boundary into Fermanagh, and nowhere exceeding 1050 feet in altitude. North of Castleblayney, on the confines of Armagh, the Mallyash Mountain rises to the height of 1030 feet. There are no rivers of any consequence. The Finn, which rises near the centre of the county, scarcely merits the title of river until after its entrance into Fermanagh; and the Blackwater, forming part of the northeastern boundary towards Tyrone, is the receptacle of many of the smaller rivulets which take their rise in Monaghan. Although deficient, however, in rivers of magnitude, it is amply furnished with streams of running water, well suited to the purposes of agriculture and of manufacturing industry. The number of lakes in this county is 184, thirty of which are considerable sheets of water, but the great majority are of very small extent. The most remarkable are Lough Egish, on Criev Mountain, which supplies water for a long succession of mills and bleaching-greens; Lakes Damby, Camm, and Oona. Others are celebrated for the beauty which they impart to the scenery; more particularly the chain of lakes between Cooliehill and Ballybay, which ornament the demesnes of Dawson Grove and Bellamont Forest, and the beautiful Lough Muckno, which contains several islets, and forms part of the demesne of Castleblayney.
The soil is of various kinds. In the central and more level part of the county it consists of a rich limestone. The southern districts are partly of the same quality, and partly a deep clay, capable of a high degree of cultivation under judicious management. The north consists mostly of a stiff retentive clay, marshy in winter, and hardening quickly by the heat of summer, yet interspersed in many parts with tracts of valuable calcareous soil. Whilst the limestone formation predominates in the level districts, the more elevated portions exhibit traces of sandstone and basalt. Coal has been found between Moynalty and Carrickmacross, in more than one portion of a small basin which rests on a patch of the carboniferous limestone insulated within the slate district; but in beds so poor and scanty as not in any case to exceed 14 inches in thickness, which, in addition to the very difficult working caused by the strata dipping at a large angle, renders this coal district valueless in an economical point of view. Slates of good quality are quarried in Criev Mountain. A lead mine was also worked there, but has long since been relinquished. Ochre, potters' clay, brick-clay, manganese, antimony, and fullers' earth are also found. There is a chalybeate spring at Drumtubberbuy, on Cairnmore, the water of which casts up a thick scum of ochre. A well near Clones is much celebrated for its efficacy in cases of jaundice, whence it has acquired its name of Granabuymore, or "the great yellow cure." This county has a large proportion of bog, which, together with its great number of lakes, and its exposure to the N.W. winds, renders the climate damp, though not unwholesome.
The state of agriculture has much improved during the present century. Descriptions given shortly after the year 1800 speak of the old country plough of clumsy construction, the slide-car without wheels, the conveyance of manure and field produce on horses' or asses' backs, and of spadehusbandry, as being generally prevalent. At present many of the improvements introduced by scientific agriculturists are to be seen in practice here, as far as they have been found consistent with the peculiar nature of the soil and climate. Ploughs on the most improved plan, Scotch carts, and implements of various kinds to supersede the improvident exertion of manual labour, are universal; yet in some parts, where the nature of the ground forbids the use of the plough, considerable tracts of land are still cultivated by the spade. The old, stunted, and ill-conditioned breeds of black cattle, sheep, and hogs, have given way to Monaghan, the most esteemed British or foreign stocks, the character of which has not unfrequently been made more suitable to the agricultural localities by judicious crossings with the native breeds. The extent of land under each description of crop in 1850, 1855, and 1857 was:
| Crop | 1850 Acres | 1855 Acres | 1857 Acres | |-----------------------|------------|------------|------------| | Wheat | 5,961 | 3,468 | 5,045 | | Oats | 80,946 | 83,662 | 75,402 | | Barley, bere, rye, beans, and peas | 16,767 | 15,411 | 4,605 | | Potatoes | 22,105 | 25,329 | 23,915 | | Turnips | 7,190 | 7,061 | 6,963 | | Other green crops | 2,543 | 2,129 | 2,162 | | Flax | 10,157 | 11,858 | 11,337 | | Meadow and clover | 11,899 | 15,377 | 17,659 |
Total: 147,668 acres
Oats and potatoes are the principal crops, together with flax; for the growth of which the soil is peculiarly favourable. Clover is much encouraged, and few farmers are without a patch of it, however small. It is cut for green food, and found extremely economical. The tops of furze or gorse are also used, when pounded, as food for horses. The manure is formed of composts, of which lime and burned turf-mould are generally component parts; marl, though abundant, is little used; and the coal strata of the county afford a large deposit of gypsum, which, from its moderate solubility in water supplies lime for the growth of clover, &c., better than any other compound. The fences in some parts are of white thorn, interspersed with sallows; in others a slight mound of earth serves rather to determine the boundary than to prevent trespassing. The county, which is now very bare of trees, was once almost a continuous forest, excepting the higher lands, which appear to be of a nature ungenial to the growth of trees. The numerous demesnes of the nobility and gentry, however, are richly embellished by plantations of modern growth. Ash and sycamore are much encouraged, the wood of the latter being in great repute for some parts of mill-machinery. Osieries are frequently to be found in the marshy bottoms at the foot of hills, and prove highly profitable.
The estates in land are of every value, from £20,000 per annum to £20, being partly held under grants of the escheated lands in Ulster in the time of James I., and partly arising out of the forfeitures in the time of Cromwell. The total number of farms or holdings exceeding one acre in extent, which in 1847 amounted to 23,255, has diminished to 19,000. Of this number about 3000 are between 1 and 5 acres in extent, 9000 between 5 and 15 acres, and 5000 between 15 and 30 acres; the remaining 2000 exceed 30 acres.
The mansions of the landed proprietors are numerous and elegant; the houses of the wealthier farmers, and more particularly of those who combine manufactures with agriculture, exhibit every indication of comfort; but the dwellings of the cotters and labourers are miserable in the extreme. Flesh-meat seldom forms a part of their diet; and those living in districts remote from towns are seldom able to procure any food but potatoes and butter-milk. Fuel is cheap and abundant in consequence of the quantity of bog.
The principal manufacture is that of linen, which has long been carried on with great spirit. The woollen manufacture is chiefly employed in supplying the domestic consumption. The sand or gritstone of Cairnmore has given rise to a manufacture of millstones there, which are in considerable demand. Coarse earthenware is manufactured at Glasslough; and a small ironwork at Smithborough, near Clones, supplies many of the agricultural implements used in the county.
The Ulster Canal, which intersects the county, passing the towns of Monaghan and Clones, affords water communication with Lough Erne and Lough Neagh; and the Dundalk and Enniskillen and other railways will shortly furnish Monaghan the means of transit to the ports of Londonderry, Belfast, Drogheda, and Sligo.
The education of the county is chiefly in the hands of the national schools. In 1851 there was a total of 242 schools in Monaghan, with an aggregate of 9372 scholars. Of the schools in that year, 114 were national, 58 private, and 45 connected with religious bodies. The number of persons, five years old and upwards, who could neither read nor write, in 1841 and 1851, was ascertained by the census commissioners to be—
| Year | Male | Female | Total | Rate | |------|------|--------|-------|------| | 1841 | 37,431 | 53,666 | 90,437 | 51 | | 1851 | 22,270 | 31,859 | 54,129 | 42 |
The use of the Irish language in this county, as elsewhere, is on the decline.
Monaghan has few remains of antiquity. The most remarkable are two round towers,—one near the county of Fermanagh, in the burial-ground adjoining an ancient church at Clones; the other at Inniskeen, on the borders of Louth. The former, which is a very rude specimen of these singular monuments of antiquity, consisted of five storeys, the traces of which are still visible in the walls, its door being about 4 feet above the level of the ground. Near it is a large stone coffin, above ground, with a cover of the same material shaped like the roof of a house. The tower at Inniskeen, which is in a very inferior state of preservation, is unique, as having its door upon a level with the surrounding country, although this is supposed by some to be the effect of a modern alteration. Near Clones are two large raths, one in good preservation, exhibiting distinct traces of its fosses and ramparts; the other smaller and much decayed. Danish forts are numerous; but the county is singularly deficient in those ancient ecclesiastical and military remains which abound in the neighbouring counties of Meath, Louth, Armagh, and Fermanagh. The only monastic structure of which any vestiges remain is that of Clones, which was a foundation of regular canons. It was destroyed by Hugh de Lacy shortly after the arrival of the English; but was rebuilt soon afterwards, and protected by the erection of a castle in its neighbourhood. An abbey of Conventual Franciscans was founded at Monaghan by one of the McMahons, but was afterwards totally destroyed, and a castle erected on its site, which also was in a ruinous state in the reign of James I. The ruins of the castle of Mannan are to be seen at Donaghmoyne near Carrickmacross.
The population of the county has been ascertained at the following periods:—In 1821 it amounted to 174,697; in 1831 to 195,536; in 1841 to 200,442; and in 1851 to 141,813. In 1841 Monaghan was one of the most densely peopled counties in Ireland, having no less than 401 inhabitants to each square mile; in 1851, however, this number had diminished to 287,—a decrease in ten years of 114 persons for each square mile, being the greatest decline of population exhibited by any Irish county during that period.
This county was represented in the Irish Parliament by four members,—two for the county at large, and two for the borough of Monaghan. The latter were struck off at the Union, and no alteration has since been made.
The district now forming the county of Monaghan is supposed to have been occupied by a tribe of the Scotti in the time of Ptolemy. Subsequently it formed part of the territory of Uriel and Orgial, and was long known as "MacMahon's Country," after a sept who for some time maintained their authority here. In the reign of Elizabeth it was reduced into shire-ground, and divided into the five baronies which still exist,—viz., Cremorne, Dartrey, Farney, Monaghan, and Trough. The whole of the county, which contains twenty-one parishes, is comprised within the diocese of Clogher. Monaghan, the capital of the above county, is situated near its centre, a short distance north of the Blackwater, a place of considerable thoroughfare and business in the linen trade and the sale of agricultural produce. Its ancient name was Muinechán (The Town of Monks), given to it from the religious establishment formerly existing there. The principal buildings are a market-house, erected by Lord Rossmore in 1792, a court-house, and a parish church. In the immediate vicinity of the town is a Roman Catholic chapel, a Presbyterian meeting-house in the New Market, the county infirmary, the diocesan school-house, the barrack for cavalry at the northern entrance of the town, an extensive county prison, and the union workhouse. Its population in 1851 amounted to 3484. The other towns in the county whose population exceeds 2000 are as follows:—Carrickmacross, 2534; Clones, 2333; and Castleblayney, 2084.
(II. 8—II.)