DUNGIVEN, a market and post-town, and a parish, in the barony of KENAUGHT, county of DERRY, and province of ULSTER, 16 miles (E. S. E.) from Londonderry city, and 138¼ miles (N. N. W.) from Dublin city. This place was a seate of the O'Cahans, and was called ‘Dun-y-even,’ or ‘Doon-Yeven;’ and here, on the summit of a rock, on the eastern bank of the river Roe, Domnach O'Cahan, or O'Cathan, founded, in 1100, an abbey for Augustinian canons, which, being shortly after- wards polluted by a cruel massacre, lay for a long time in ruins, but was restored with much solemnity by the Archbishop of Armagh, and nourished till the dissolution after which the lands were granted to the Irish Society, and are now in the possession of the Skinners' Company. It is situated on the road between Londonderry and Dublin, and on the banks of the river Roe; and comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 30,367½ statute acres, one-third of which is mountain, everywhere affording excellent pasturage. The land around the town is fertile and well cultivated; even the mountain Benbradagh, 1,530 feet above the level of the sea, is chiefly under tillage and Carntogher, Moneyneiney, Carn, and other mountains, all very high, afford turbary and sufficient pasturage for vast herds of cattle : grouse and other game abound in the higher parts.
The town is in a vale, near the junction of the Owen-reagh and the Owen-beg, which descend in nearly parallel lines from Glenfin and Cairnaban, with the Roe, here crossed by a handsome bridge of freestone : it consists of one long street, intersected by two shorter; some of the houses are well built, but the greater number are low and only thatched, formerly there were four extensive bleach-greens; they are now unemployed, and the manufacture is limited to a small quantity woven by the inhabitants in their own houses. A large market is held every Tuesday; the market-house is extensive, and there are stores for grain, &c.; considerable fairs are held on the second Tuesday in each month, except May and October, when they take place on the 25th. A court for the manor of Pellipar is held in the court-house at Dungiven, every third Thursday, for the recovery of debts under 40s.; its jurisdiction extends into the parishes of Dungiven, Banagher, Ballynascreen, Upper Cumber and Lower Cumber. Petty sessions are likewise held monthly in the court-house. Here is a constabulary police station; adjoining the market-house is the barrack store.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Derry, and in the patronage of the impropriator, Robert Ogilby, Esq., lessee of the manor of Pellipar under the Skinners' Company, to whom the entire tithes, amounting to £450. 14s. 8d., are payable; it is usually held in connection with Banagher. The glebe townland of Tirmeal comprises 654a. 2r. 17p., of which 89 are mountain and bog. The church is a commodious cruciform edifice of hewn freestone, built in 1817 (on the site of a former one erected in 1711), at a cost of £1460, of which £1200 was a loan from the late Board of First Fruits. In the Roman Catholic divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising Dungiven and parts of Banagher and Bovevagh; the chapel is a large building in the town.
The interesting remains of the abbey church occupy a remarkably picturesque situation, on a rock 200 feet in perpendicular height above the river Roe; they consist of the side walls of the nave and chancel, which are nearly entire, with the gable of the latter, in which, within a circular arch resting on corbels and cylindrical pillars, are two narrow lancet-shaped windows, with a niche on each side and a square-headed window above. The nave is separated from the chancel by a lofty circular arch, and has on the north side a low doorway of corresponding style; it was lighted by a window ornamented with tracery, in good preservation. Under a beautifully ornamented arch in the chancel is an altar-tomb, bearing a recumbent edgy of an armed warrior, said to be one of the O'Cahans; the stones in front are ornamented with figures of armed knights, sculptured in relief, in niches. The remains of the abbey have from time to time been removed, and the capitals, pillars, mullions, &c., may be seen in the church-yard, forming boundaries round the graves or head-stones. Adjoining the town are extensive ruins of a castle and bawl, built in 1618, by the Skinners' Company. A lofty stone stands near the old church, set up as the record of an ecclesiastical assembly held here in 590, at which St. Columbkill was present. Near the river Roe is Tubber-Phadrig, or St. Patrick's fountain.
The ruins of the old church at BANAGHER parish in the barony of Tirkeeran are situated on the summit of a sandy ridge on the south side of the river Owenreagh, in a retired and beautiful valley, and are very interesting; they consist of the church and a small square building, sometimes called the abbey. The church consisted of a nave and chancel, but the partition wall, the arch, and the eastern gable have disappeared; the side walls and the west front are remaining and tolerably entire; the nave and chancel appear each to have been lighted by a very narrow lancet window on the south side, ornamented externally with curious circular mouldings; the a only entrance appears to have been from the west,through a square-headed doorway with a bold architrave, and on one of the stones on the north side is the inscription in modern capitals before noticed. There are also the ruins of an ancient church at Straid, said by the country people to have been the second founded by St. Patrick in this part of the kingdom; but the style of the building is of much less remote antiquity. There are also the foundations of a third church in the town-land of Templemoile, but no part of the building is remaining, nor Is there any history or tradition of it extant. On the glebe is a curious vitrified fort, on which the Midsummer fires are made; and near the church is an extensive artificial cave. In the cemetery of the old church is a curious monument to the memory of St. O'Heney, the supposed founder of the church and Abbot of the small building near it which is called the abbey it is of a square form, with sharp pointed gables an a roof of stone; and on the western side is an effigy of the saint in tolerable preservation. Here is a very curious ancient cross, with the fragments of a second which, with three others, marked out the consecrated ground around this venerable pile.
In the Roman Catholic divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, which comprises also the parishes of Bovevagh and Learmount, and contains three chapels, one at Feeny, one at Altinure in the mountain district, and one at Foreglen. BOVEVAGH, a parish, in the barony of KENAUGHT. At this place, anciently called ‘Boith Medhbha,’, a monastery was founded in 551 by St. Columb, of which Aidan, nephew of St. Patrick, was the first abbot. This establishment was situated on the western bank of the river Roe, and continued to flourish for some but was plundered and destroyed by the Danes, and was never afterwards rebuilt. The parish is intersected by two roads, one on each side of the river, leading from Dungiven to Newtownlimavady. The geological features of the parish are highly interesting : the strata are laid open to view in the river and the several streams; the most valuable of those hitherto worked is the freestone, which is found in several parts, and of which the principal quarry is at Ballyhargan. From this quarry was procured the stone used in building the palace of Ballyscullion, the magnificent - portico of which was removed to St. Georges church at Belfast; the stone found here is easily worked, but hardens by exposure to the air, and is of very good colour. Indications of manganese are also observable, and the beautiful pebbles called Dungiven crystals are frequently found. The weaving of linen cloth is carried on in many of the farm-houses and cottages. In the Roman Catholic divisions this parish forms part of the union or district of Banagher, and contains two chapels, one at Derrylane, where service is performed every alternate Sunday, and the other at Ballymoney.
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