This parish is situated in the baronies of Middlethird and Slieveardagh and is bounded on the north by the parishes of Moycarkey and Ballymoreen, on the east by the parish of killenaule and on the south by the same parish, plus the parishes of Kilconnell, St. John’s, Cashel and Magorban, and on the west by the parishes of Kilcooly, Lickfinn, Crohane and Killenaule.
The name of this parish is not of ecclesiastical origin and appears from the pronounciation of it in Irish – Baile Ghray – derived from a man’s name and a town, when translated from Irish into English .
In the townsland of Graystown, there is a hill called Cnoc na bpFrachan – the hill of the whortle berries. On this hill stands a church in ruins called Scornan.
Graystown church which was dedicated to St. Catherine, was built of limestone, lime and sand mortar. It measured fifty three feet four inches in length by twenty feet four inches in breadth. The height of the side wall was eight feet nine inches as ascertained in the measurement of the north wall in height, which still remains. The thickness of the walls was three feet as ascertained at the doorway of the same wall. Of the building, there is no remaining the east gable – reduced to nearly a n equal height with the north side wall, having a large window on it. It is now opened at the top,the wall above it being broken down, the north side wall, whilst the west gable and the south side wall have been razed to the foundation. At a distance of eighteen feet, eight inches from the west gable, there is a doorway placed on the north side wall. It is pointed and constructed of chiselled limestone measuring six feet seven inches in height by two feet eight inches in breadth. There is a burial ground here but no headstones with inscriptions are seen on it.
– The History & Folklore of Killenaule/Moyglass 1990