Skibbereen Heritage Centre

Skibbereen Heritage Centre houses two permanent exhibitions – one on the Great Famine and one on Lough Hyne, as well as offering a genealogy service for the greater West Cork area.

The Great Famine Exhibition commemorates this tragic period of Irish history and serves as a tribute to the suffering of the local community. Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas in Ireland, losing a third of its people to hunger and disease. The Exhibition portrays the Great Famine through primary source accounts of the time, giving an overview of government policies and how they impacted on the ground. Reports from the relief committee in their attempts to alleviate the suffering of local people are shown alongside reports of how the international community responded to the crisis. The story unfolds in an interactive way through the dramatisation by actors, including Jeremy Irons, of actual events and people of the time.

Lough Hyne is a salt-water lake 5km from Skibbereen. This small marine lake was designated as Europe’s first Marine Nature Reserve in 1981 and is now one of the most-studied marine sites in the world. This unique lake and its surroundings are home to a rich and varied range of plants and animals, including many rare and beautiful species.

Skibbereen Heritage Centre has a database of over 350,000 genealogical records. Our genealogist, Margaret Murphy, will answer queries relating to the greater West Cork area assisted by Deirdre Collins. We enter data such as estate records, loan funds and deaths. These records have benefited many people over the years and are available on the database on our website.

Online booking essential!