Mallow

Mallow, a market town and watering place of Co. Cork, Ireland, on the Blackwater, 1442 m. S.W. from Dublin, and 21 N. from Cork by the Great Southern and Western railway. Pop. (1901), 4542. It is a junction for lines westward to Killarney and Co. Kerry, and eastward to Lismore and Co. Waterford. The town owes its prosperity to its beautiful situation in a fine valley surrounded by mountains, and possesses a tepid mineral spring, considered efficacious in cases of general debility and for scorbutic and consumptive complaints. A spa-house with pump-room and baths was erected in 1828. The parish church dates from 1818, but there are remains of an earlier building adjoining it. There are manufactures of mineral water and condensed milk, corn-mills and tanneries. Mallow received a charter of incorporation from James I. Its name was originally Magh Allo, that is, Plain of the Allo (the old name used by Spenser for this part of the river), and the ford was defended by a castle, built by the Desmonds, the ruins of which remain. A bridge connects the town with the suburb of Ballydaheen. Mallow is a centre for the fine salmon fishing on the Blackwater. The climate is very mild. The town was a parliamentary borough till 1885. It is governed by an urban district council.