KILLOUGH, or ST. ANNE'S PORT, a sea-port and post-town, in the parish of RATHMULLEN, barony of LECALE, county of Down, and province of ULSTER, 5 miles (S.E.) from Downpatrick, and 78¾(N.) from Dublin; containing 1162 inhabitants. This place is situated on the harbour to which it gives name, on the eastern coast, in lat. 54º 15' (N.) and long.5º 37' 30'' (W.) The town contains 247 houses, built along the margin of the bay, and carries on a considerable coasting trade with the principal ports in the Irish channel. The chief exports are corn and live cattle, of the former of which very great quantities are shipped; and the principal imports are coal and salt. A lucrative fishery is carried on off the coast; haddock and whiting are taken in great quantities, and from 12 to 20 boats are daily employed during the year. The manufacture of salt is also carried on upon a small scale. The harbour is about half a league to the east of St. John's Point, and affords safe shelter for coasting-vessels and for merchant-ships of 150 tons' burthen; there is a good roadstead in off-shore winds for vessels navigating the channel, and it is the rendezvous of a considerable portion of the numerous fishing-vesse1s that frequent this part of the coast. The pier and quays extend on both sides of the entrance to the bay, and have been greatly improved by Viscount Bangor, at an expense of more than £18,000. Fairs are held on the first Friday (0. S.) in February, June 9th, Aug. 17th, and Nov. 12th, for live stock and pedlery; and a manorial court is held on the first Tuesday in every month. The living is an impropriate curacy, in the diocese of Down, and in the patronage of the Incumbent of Rathmullen. The church, which had been rebuilt in 1716, and had subsequently fallen into a state of dilapidation, was again rebuilt in 1802, by the munificence of the Rev. J. Hamilton, who died in 1797, and bequeathed £1200 for that purpose. It is a neat edifice, on the site of the former, in the early English style, with a tower surmounted with an octangular spire, affording an excellent landmark for mariners entering the port. The glebe-house, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits granted £450 as a gift and £50 as a loan, is a comfortable residence. The stipend of the curate is £100, of which £20 is paid by Lord Bangor, as impropriator of Rathmullen, and £80 by the trustees of Primate Boulter's augmentation fund. The R. C. parochial chapel is in the town, and there is also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. At St. John's Point are the ruins of a preceptory of Knights Hospitallers; and about a quarter of a mile from the town, on the shore, is a beautiful grotto, in which is a well, seven feet deep, supplied with water oozing through a mass of tufa at the top of the cavern. About half a mile from the town, on the road to Downpatrick, is a copious spring, the water of which is specifically lighter by one-fourth part than spring water in general; and close to the shore is St. Seordin's Well, issuing from a rocky bank, and discharging at the rate of one hogshead per hour, without any diminution in the driest weather. Not far from this is a hole in the rock, which at the ebbing and flowing of the tide emits a sound resembling that of a huntsman's horn. |