For as far as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by maps and place names. I love to have a paper map in my hands as we travel along the roads, seeing what features are nearby and where we are in relation to important landmarks. Satnavs might get you from a to b, but they don’t provide any context. Also, it’s so important to understand where the Irish place names have come from, rather than depending on the English translation. Like, did you know that Schull is an anglicised version of ‘Scoil’? The Irish names give you huge clues as to the history of a place, what it may have looked like years ago. There is so many features to be found on a map, but I thought that I’d create a different view of West Cork, focusing in on the names of those well-known places that we know and love. Where the boundary occurs between West Cork and the rest of the country is a cause for debate, so I’ve drawn on a few sources and I hope that you agree with those places that I’ve included. Travelling to Skibbereen, Bantry and Glengarriff, I feel connected to my grandfather, my great grandparents and their families, thinking how different the countryside is now to when they lived here, how depleted of wildlife and birdsong it is, and hope that we can all work together to rewild our own little part of this place we call home. This has been a labour of love, taking many months of work, selecting place names and fitting them in to the layout, scaling them to suit. I abandoned the project for some time while grieving the loss of our beloved Mam, but eventually felt drawn back to complete the task that I’d started. So here it is, my map of West Cork. I hope you love it as much as I’ve loved creating it. These text maps featuring the place names of West Cork will look well in any interior. Designed and printed in West Cork onto 220 gsm fade-resistant matte paper using high quality inks, you have size options of A2 (420 x 594 mm) or A3 (297 x 420 mm), in either red or black ink. These maps are not mounted and are not framed. They come rolled, tied with string and labelled, and will be posted in a rigid cardboard postal box.
