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Sheep's Head Way

A peaceful, unspoilt peninsula, home of the Sheep’s Head Way walking route, which has some of Ireland's most beautiful scenery.

Home > Kilcrohane > Kilcrohane Old Church

Kilcrohane Old Church

January 1, 2019 by Sheepish

Buried Faced West

By James O’Mahony, Farmer, whose hard work made the Sheep’s Head Way
possible

“I dug the grave for Jackie Tobin. And on the western side of the church, the south-western corner, we had gone down to the bottom of a grave that had been there before. I said Jackie would like to do the job right and make it deep, and we said we’d sink it more, and the earth was a bit soft underneath, and we sunk it, and we got into another burial deeper than that. We found a skull that was in under the wall about two feet, and strange enough, I thought that he was buried faced west. That would be wrong unless he was a priest.”

The Church In Ruins

By Jack Sheehan, Farmer and Local Historian, Ardahill, Kilcrohane “Carew’s soldiers knocked the church, anyway, the locals built it up again (early 17th century). You can see that still; there are different stones on the western side. And it was handed over to the Protestants, and the Protestant religion became the established religion of the country. And the story I heard was that the minister came here on three different occasions for service and nobody turned up. So he packed up and it went back again to the Catholics.

Smith said the church was in ruins in 1639; Smith wrote the “History of Cork” for the Queen. He made sure he didn’t insult the Queen, because he said the churches were in ruins, but he didn’t say why they were in ruins. Something made ruins of the churches, but he didn’t say what at all.”

There are several old tombs inside the graveyard – to the west is O’Dalys’, which has an “O’D” inscribed on a flagstone over it. To the east are two tombs of the O’Donovans.

Filed Under: Kilcrohane, Old Church, Ruins & Relics Tagged With: chruch, graves, jack sheehan, ruins

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News & Updates

The Sheep’s Head Way is closed to the public on Sunday 31st January 2021

As usual each year, the Sheep’s Head Way is closed on 31 January, unless the expressed wishes of the Landowner states otherwise. This has become a customary practice which enables the landowner to grant permission for the public to access their land throughout the remaining year without risk of any public right of way being established. We hope you will respect this necessary inconvenience.

Mount Corrin loop

Due to storm damage, the forestry section of the Mount Corrin loop walk will remain closed until further notice.

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