ABBEY, a parish and village, in the barony of BURREN, county of CLARE, and province of MUNSTER; containing, with the post-town of Burren. This place, which is situated on the shores of the harbour of Burren in the bay of Galway, and on the road from Galway to Ennistymon, derives its name from an ancient Cistertian abbey founded here, either by Donald O'Brien, King of Limerick, in 1194, or by his son Donough Carbrac O'Brien, in the yeare 1200. This establishment, designated the abbey of Corcomroe, Corcomruadh, or De Petra fertili, and called also Gounamonagh, or "the Glen of the Monks," is said to have been a sumptuous edifice, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and dependent on or connected with the abbey of Suire, or Innislaunaght, in the county of Tipperary : it was afterwards made subject to the celebrated abbey of Furness, in Lancashire, and had a cell annexed to it in Kilshanny, in the adjoining barony of Corcomroe.
The small port of New Quay is situated about a quarter of a mile to the north of the village of Burren; a constant intercourse is kept up with Galway, on the opposite side of the bay, and a considerable trade in corn and fish is carried on; the boats employed in the Galway bay fishery rendezvous here, and more than 100 of them have at one time taken shelter in stormy weather. The port affords great facilities for commerce, as vessels of considerable burden can approach at any time of the tide: the coast is well adapted for sea bathing. The great oyster bed, called the Red Bank, to the east of Burren, and said to be one of the most extensive on the Irish coast; was established some years since by Mr. Bindon, and is now in great celebrity: it is stocked with young oysters, chiefly from Connemara, and more than 150 persons, chiefly women and children, are regularly employed. A considerable trade is also carried on in sea-weed with the farmers of the interior, which has been greatly increased since the construction of a new line of road from this place leading through the parishes of Kinvarra and Killeny, in the county of Galway, and of Kilkeady and Inchicronan, in the county of Clare. The harbour of New Quay, or Burren, called also Curranroe, is one of the several inlets of the bay of Galway : it lies to the south of Aughnish Point, and extends four miles up to Curranroe Bridge.
The parish is in the diocese of Kilfenora, and is a rectory, partly without provision for the cure of souls: the tithes, with the exception of those of the townlands of Aughnish, Finvarra, Behagh, and Kilmacrane, which are annexed to the parish of Kilcorney.