Schull

src: www.schull.ie

Schull or Skull ( SKUL; Irish: Scoil Mhuire or An Scoil, meaning "Mary's School") is a town in County Cork, Ireland.

Located on the southwest coast, in West Cork, the village is dominated by Mount Gabriel (407 m). It has a sheltered harbour, used for recreational boating. The area, on the peninsula leading to Mizen Head, is popular with tourists, and there are numerous holiday homes along the adjoining coast. The village had a population of 693 in 2002. The town's secondary school, Schull Community College, houses one of the only planetariums in Ireland along with a sailing school. Each year Schull harbour hosts the Fastnet International Schools Regatta.

Video Schull

Name

The first recorded place name for this area is "scol", from a Decretal Letter of Pope Innocent III in 1199 to the bishop of Cork confirming the rights of the bishop of Cork. Both Skull and Skul are used in the Down Survey of 1656-58. Skull is also used in the Grand Jury Map surveyed in the 1790s and published 1811.

The Placenames (County Cork) Order of 2012 lists "An Scoil" as the Irish name for the village, in which "Scoil" is translated from "school". This is attributed by some to a school which was ostensibly located in the area.

However, others question this derivation, and Gary Dempsey's thesis "Whispered in the Landscape/Written on the Street, A Study of Placename Policy and Conflict in Ireland from 1946 to 2010", it is suggested that the "Scoil Mhuire" form dated to 1893 when the parish priest of Schull at the time, Very Rev. John O'Connor (P.P. Schull 1888-1911), who "fancied himself as a historian, misread a latin sentence as referring to a 'College of St. Mary' in Skull; in fact, the text referred to a collegiate church in Waterford but the PP had set the ball rolling."

Maps Schull

Transport

Schull once had its own railway station. The village was the western terminus of the Schull and Skibbereen Railway, a steam-operated narrow gauge railway; it was closed by CIÉ in 1947. Schull railway station opened on 6 September 1886, closed for passenger and goods traffic on 27 January 1947, and finally closed altogether on 1 June 1953.

src: www.cork-guide.ie

In literature

The book Silver River (2007) by Daisy Goodwin includes a section on the efforts of her 3xgreat-grandfather, the Rector of Skull, to help the populace during the Great Famine.

src: c8.alamy.com

Notable people

• Timothy O'Hea, recipient of the Victoria Cross was born in the area
• Ralph Allan Sampson, astronomer, born here
• Robert Traill (1793-1847), the local Rector, who was notable for his efforts to alleviate suffering during the Great Irish Famine.
• Colin Vearncombe , English singer-songwriter lived in Schull

src: www.schull.ie

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland
• Carbery's Hundred Isles
• Long Island, County Cork

src: odis.homeaway.com

References

src: www.schull.ie

External links

• Schull.ie Website
• Schull Country Market - for great food, crafts, plants etc

Source of article : Wikipedia