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Photo Story of the Week: This Tuesday we travel along the Beara to our final destination of this series, the Kilcatherine Peninsula in the remote west of West Cork.

Kilcatherine Church and Graveyard on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork

Located about 6 km north of Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, this ruined church is the remains of the medieval parish church of Kilcatherine. As with all churches built in that period, the church is aligned east-west with the altar facing the rising sun, symbolic of the Resurrection of Christ. It is built of local stone with sandstone details.

The earliest historic references to the church go back to the 12th century. But the carved stone cross in the graveyard (in the centre of the photo) dates to an earlier period; possibly the 7th century. Also dating to this period is a three chambered souterrain. Souterrains (French for “underground”) are man-made underground passages or chambers that were common in Ireland from the Iron Age to the Early Medieval period. They were used primarily as cool secure storage for food, as hiding places during raids and sometimes for living or ritual. These suggest the site may have been an Early Christian monastic settlement; there is a tradition that it was a convent of nuns.

The church was abandoned in the 17th century. The earliest inscribed grave markers date from the 18th century but the site is likely to contain burials from much earlier periods in unmarked graves. The numerous low un-inscribed grave markers, a typical feature of West Cork graveyards, indicate the burial place of those who could not afford a carved headstone.

When you stand in the grounds of the graveyard you can sense the site’s long history. Once you start to research it you realise just how long and rich that history is. And you realise just how old is the Christian tradition in Ireland and how it embodies the social and economic inequalities of our own times. 

 

 

Photographic specifications: The image was taken on a cold wet day with an iPhone 11 and edited in Lightroom.

© Kevin Balanda

 

This story / page is available in: German