VISITOR numbers to the Skibbereen Heritage Centre in 2024 were up 10% on the previous year, according to a West Cork Municipal District officer report.
Visitor numbers to the popular centre last year were at 16,400, while the centre was placed in the top 10% of visitor attractions worldwide by TripAdvisor, having been granted the prestigious ‘Traveller’s Choice Award’ again in 2024.
The centre was also awarded the overall 2023 Cork County Award by the Heritage Council for its Heritage Week events, which hundreds attended.
\It also hosted a night with approximately 150 attendees at a Comhaltas session to celebrate Culture Night 2024.
‘Outside of its core activities, Skibbereen Heritage Centre is continuing its digitisation process of the Cork County Council burial records with over 82,700 burial records from 128 graveyards across Cork, which are now available worldwide on its website. Staff are working hard to even add more records from North Cork to the online database in 2025,’ the report stated.
Skibbereen Heritage Centre staff also featured in a TV documentary, Abandoned Engineering on the Discovery Channel last year, while Channel 4’s Julia Bradbury’s Irish Journey also featured the centre.
The show was screened in the UK and to millions more in Australia and New Zealand, and was repeated in Ireland and the UK last month.
Staff also compiled a series of genealogy podcasts in 2024 and brought students from three US colleges to the Skibbereen area for the Study Abroad programmes, some of whom stayed for up to six weeks in the area.
Meanwhile, the report also showed that income from Dunmanway Municipal Pool as of November 30th, 2024 was up by 5% on the same period in 2023.
Dursey Cable Car welcomed 21,448 visitors between January 1st and November 30th in 2024.
In Clonakilty, Michael Collins House welcomed just under 20,000 visitors to the museum, which is on a par with 2023 figures.
