Coomkeen


Coomkeen is a townland located near Durrus in West Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. It is a small valley home to approximately 14 families, it is also the home of the world-famous Durrus Cheese.

History

Home to Reverend Timothy Crowley, Parish Priest, Coomkeen Upper, 1776.
Prior to purchase under the Land Acts of the early 1900s, the lands were owned by Lord Bandon and rented by tenant farmers.
In the late 1920s a new road to Bantry was built from Coomkeen and was celebrated by local poet Charles Dennis:

1901 census

1901 Census of Coomkeen.
John, Mary, 26, Daniel Burke, Daniel, 64, Mary Burke, 60, Daniel, 63, Mary Ann, 50, Sullivan, Catherine Mahony, 68, John 50, Hanorah, 40, Cronin, Mary Wholly, 80, Daniel, 50, Julia, 48, Jeremiah, 14, Wholihan, Timothy Wholihan, 55

1911 Census

1911 Census of Coomkeen.
Name: Number in each family
By 2006 most of the original families who lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries were no longer resident. Around 10 of the current dwellings are pre-famine, according to the early OS maps. This townland has had most of its field names preserved by the Cork and Kerry Place Names Survey in 2008.
There is a burial ground; mass rock site and on the Crottees boundary, a stone circle overlooking Durrus village. There was reputedly some mining exploration carried out on the south side of Knockboolteeangh in the 1840s and ore was extracted but not dressed.