BLACKRATH, a parish, in the barony of GOWRAN, county of KILKENNY, and province of LEINSTER, 2 miles (N. E. by E.) from Kilkenny; containing 730 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the mail coach road from Dublin to Cork, and on the river Nore, on the banks of which there are two considerable flour-mills; and within its limits are the marble works described in the account of the city of Kilkenny. Lyrath, the seat of Sir J. D. W. Cuffe, Bart., is pleasantly situated on an eminence commanding a fine view of that city. It is a rectory, in the diocese of Ossory, forming the corps of the prebend of Blackrath in the cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £121. 1. 7 ½. There is neither church nor glebe-house, but there is a glebe of eight acres attached to the prebend. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Gowran. There is a private pay school, in which about 50 boys and 30 girls are taught. Some remains of the old church yet exist.

(Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837); Transcription © Derek Rowlinson, 2005-10. Reproduced from LibraryIreland. We are deeply grateful to LibraryIreland for allowing us to use their transcription.)