In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Ballylynan like this:
BALLYLINAN, a village, in the parish of KILLEBAN, barony of BALLYADAMS, QUEEN'S county, and province of LEINSTER, 3 miles (S. W.) from Athy, on the road to Castlecomer; containing 94 houses and 533 inhabitants. In the strata of the neighbouring lands are numerous marine exuviae; and some valuable coal mines, called the Wolf-Hill and Mordulah collieries, are worked by steam-engines recently erected. ...
Great quantities of fine flag-stones were formerly raised on the adjoining townland of Boley; but on the discovery of similar quarries near Carlow, more conveniently situated for conveyance by canal, they were abandoned. Stones containing a large proportion of iron are found on the lands called Iron Park; but no works have been yet established.
The village is a constabulary police station, and has a penny post to Athy. Fairs are held in it on Jan. 11th, Feb. 10th, May 10th, Sept. 2nd, and Nov. 26th and petty sessions every Saturday. To the north is Rahin, the seat of Lieut.-Colonel Weldon, a handsome mansion surrounded by thriving plantations; and at a short distance are the luxuriant woods of Gracefield Lodge, the seat of the ancient family of Grace, whose old mansion has been taken down and replaced by an elegant villa in the later English style, from a design by Mr. Nash, completed in 1817; the grounds have been tastefully embellished, and the approach from the Kilkenny side presents some beautiful and interesting mountain scenery.
In the village are the ruins of an old church, near which some ancient coins have been dug up; and on the Marquess of Lansdowne's estate of Luggaghcurran, in the vicinity, are the remains of a cromlech, consisting of five upright pillars about 4 ½ feet high, and a table stone 8 ½ feet long, 7 wide, and 2 ½ feet in thickness. On the highest point of the Boley hills, and near the woods of Gracefield, is Dundrom, an extensive earthwork consisting of a vast mound, the summit of which is 130 yards in diameter, enclosed by a high bank, and surrounded at the base by a fosse 30 feet wide at the bottom. Within the enclosure is a well of fine water, and from the mound is a view of uncommon extent. This post was occupied by a party of the insurgents in 1798.—See KILLEBAN.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Ballylynan, in and County Laoighis | Map and description, A Vision of Ireland through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofireland.org/place/29437
Date accessed: 18th May 2024
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