Kenmare, town and par., S. co. Kerry, on river Blackwater, near the head of Kenmare River, 21 miles S. of Killarney - ar., 22,507 ac., pop. 3632; town, pop. 1279; P.O., T.O., 1 Bank. Market-day, Saturday. There are numerous visitors to the town in the bathing season, who are also attracted by the romantic scenery of the neighbourhood. Fine salmon fishing is obtained in the Blackwater. Kenmare dates from 1670, the time of its foundation by Sir William Petty, the ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))