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KIRCUBBIN, a market and post-town, in the parish of ST. ANDREW, barony
of Ardes, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 8¾ miles (S.
E.) from Newtown-Ardes, and 96¼ (N. by E.) from Dublin, on the
road from Belfast to Portaferry; containing 537 inhabitants. This town,
which is situated on the shore of Strangford lough, is of very recent
origin, having been built since the year 1790, previously to which time
there were not more than five houses in the place.
The present town contains 117 houses, for the greater
part neatly built, and the inhabitants carry on a small but prosperous
trade. The manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, of which great numbers
are sent every year into the interior, affords employment to most of the
industrious female population of the town and adjoining parishes; great
quantities of kelp are burned and sent annually to Liverpool, and corn
and potatoes are shipped hence for the Liverpool and Glasgow markets to
a considerable extent.
The situation of the town, close to which is an
excellent landing-place, affords every facility of conveyance by land
and water. The market is held every third Wednesday, and is well supplied
with provisions of every kind and with brown linens. Fairs are held on
the 28th of April, May, Aug., and Nov. A neat market-house, with a brown
linen hall in the rear of it, was erected by the late Hon. Robert Ward;
the same family are about to expend a considerable sum in the erection
of quays for the greater convenience of shipping the produce of the neighbourhood.
A court leet and baron is held every three weeks
by the seneschal of the manor, in which pleas are entertained to the amount
of £20, with jurisdiction over all the parishes of the union; and
the magistrates hold a petty session here every alternate Monday.
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