A project, which involves erecting detailed information and location signs for West Cork’s graveyards, is being held up as a template for others in the area.
A PROJECT, which involves erecting detailed information and location signs for West Cork’s graveyards, is being held up as a template for others in the area.
The West Cork Graveyard Survey’s first on-site sign was erected recently in Creagh Graveyard, beween Baltimore and Skibbereen.
It lists the 245 individuals buried in the older parts of Creagh, giving locations for each burial plot. As well as giving information on the people interred there, the new sign also gives information on the history of the beautiful medieval graveyard.
The Graveyard Survey covers 11 graveyards in total, giving information on each headstone and its inscription. It also includes information on un-inscribed and unmarked burials which was collected from the public by the survey team.
The survey can been browsed and searched online via Skibbereen Heritage Centre’s website (www.graveyards.skibbheritage.com). Each of the parishes involved, and all the local libraries, also have a printed copy of the survey.
In 2015, the West Cork Graveyard Survey was augmented with the addition of 18 burial registers for local graveyards. The survey now has a total of 5,500 individual burials listed in it.
The sign at Creagh was supported by Cork County Council and put together by a group of volunteers. These included Barry McMahon, William Casey and Margaret Murphy, alongside Terri Kearney of Skibbereen Heritage Centre and Shona O’Leary and Mac dara O’Hici of Cork County Council. The survey team hopes to use the Creagh sign as a template for other graveyard signs in the future.
The public is being invited to visit the site at Creagh to see the new sign, or access the survey online at www.skibbheritage.com.
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