Lismore

Lismore: castle

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Lismore, Irish Lios Mor, market town, County Waterford, Ireland. It lies in the Blackwater valley, at the southern foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains. A monastery was founded in Lismore by St. Cartagh about 633. In the 9th and 10th centuries it was plundered by the Norsemen. The baronial castle, erected by Prince John, later king of England, in 1185, was the residence of the bishops of Lismore until the 14th century; in 1581 the manor was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, and from him it passed to Richard Boyle in 1602. Robert Boyle, one of the founders of modern chemistry, was born in the manor in 1627. In 1753 the castle passed to the 4th duke of Devonshire, whose successor still retains it. Lismore has some river trade and is the centre of a salmon fishery. Pop. (2006) 790; (2011) 732.