Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Caheragh Old Graveyard

This is the beautiful Old Caheragh Graveyard on the banks of the river Ilen

north of Skibbereen in West Cork.

My name is Terri and this is Barry

and we're from Skibbereen Heritage Centre.

We've been carrying out a survey in this graveyard

over the winter and thought we would give you a short tour.

This beautiful medieval graveyard contains a variety of monuments, both old and new,

including chest tombs

and celtic crosses.

And well as this mausoleum of local landlord

Henry Newman and his wife Eliza.

This is the vault of another landlord who

was very active in relief efforts during the Great Famine.

But many of the graves are marked by simple stone slabs,

some of them uninscribed.

Others have elaborate and ornate carvings.

And there are locally-crafted cast and wrought

iron gravemarkers too.

This is the memorial to one local girl whose

body is said to remain incorrupt.

Generations of local people are buried here,

including the ancestors of Patricia Tomlinson

who originally surveyed this graveyard with her husband Kevin

Caheragh graveyard has been in use for up

to a thousand years

and is a peaceful and beautiful site to visit.

And you can visit it virtually too by accessing the survey results on our website.