They've gone stone mad in Kealkil!

KEALKIL will look even more attractive after five hand-carved stone plaques have been erected around the village.

Last week, one of the hand-carved plaques was unveiled by Angela Hourihan and her granddaughter, Hannah, at the village parklands.

The sign Cúl Dúlra – meaning ‘nature haven’ – was the perfect choice for the village’s 17.5-acre parkland, which was developed over a two-year period on agricultural land that has been disused for more than 20 years.

Today, this little oasis in the middle of the village features streams and nature walks, a bird feeding station, a willow dome and a 1.1km loop walk that is wheelchair accessible.

It also is the setting for another community project involving the planting of trees, and it even has an outdoor gym.

The plaques were created as part of a Tidy Towns initiative that was co-ordinated by Siobhán Burke with the assistance of four of 11 course participants.

The course project was sponsored by the Cork Education Training Board (ETB) and included: John Anderson, Ben Russell, John Veale, Andrew Rawlings, Sam Weaver, Irene Manning, John McCarthy, Richard (Dickie) O’Sullivan, Connie Neilus O’Sullivan, Margaret O’Mahony and Margaret Peters.

The success of the project is down to Victor Daly, a well-known stone carver from Ahakista, who skillfully communicated the basics of stone-carving techniques to the novices and inspiring in them the confidence to create these beautiful Celtic plaques.