12 April 2021
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
A heritage trail asset for Skibbereen, featuring videos and blogs on sites of interest around the town, has recently been launched by Cork County Council. The ‘Skibbereen Heritage Map’ provides in-depth historical and heritage information on more than 60 local sites, researched and compiled by Council-owned Skibbereen Heritage Centre.
Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Mary Linehan Foley, congratulated Skibbereen Heritage Centre on the map, saying,
“This is a fantastic asset for County Cork and provides a forum to share the history of Skibbereen with a global audience. The demand for online resources continues to grow and Skibbereen Heritage has been working hard to provide that content, from digitising burial registers to making videos of local sites and now providing this informative heritage map. Skibbereen Heritage Centre’s work receives great feedback from users all over the world, some of whom will, hopefully, have opportunity to visit in person soon.”
Along with informative history of notable buildings, the map links to stories of historical characters who lived in Skibbereen, such as Walter Kindred who opened a sawmill in Ilen Street after returning from a grand tour of India in a Rolls Royce.
The Skibbereen Heritage Centre team plan to add to the heritage map over time and are continuing to digitise further local burial registers and create more video resources. The map is free to use and available here www.skibbheritage.com.
The website also offers ‘vintage videos’ of other sites around West Cork, as well as graveyard and Famine videos and a range of other genealogy resources.
