Rockchapel () is a village in north

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is located near the border of counties Cork, Kerry and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

. Rockchapel is within the Dáil constituency of

Cork North-West "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

. Much of the land close to the village is planted with coniferous trees, mainly of

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

and

Sitka spruce ''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to just over tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth- ...

. This was largely facilitated by financial funding from the national forestry company

Coillte Coillte (; ; meaning /) is a state-owned commercial forestry business in Ireland based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a 'land solut ...

through its grant support scheme. The local GAA club is

Rockchapel GAA Rockchapel GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in the village of Rockchapel in the North West of County Cork, Ireland which forms part of the parish of Rockchapel and Meelin. The village is located close to border with County Kerry ...

which fields

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

teams in Duhallow division competitions. The local church is dedicated to

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

and was built . Rockchapel forms half a parish in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne The Diocese of Cloyne () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Ireland. It is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel (also known as Munster). History The diocese has its beginnings in the monastic settlem ...

, the other half of the parish being Meelin. The village got its name from the penal times when

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

religious services were banned. Mass was said on a rock in a remote area. Rockchapel has two pubs, one shop, a community centre, a church, a funeral home and a graveyard. As of 2018, the local national (primary) school had 41 pupils enrolled. The headwaters of the

River Feale Image of beach fishing for salmon in the River Feale near the town of Ballybunion in 1975. The River Feale (''An Fhéil'' or ''Abhainn na Féile'' in Irish) rises near Rockchapel in the Mullaghareirk Mountains of County Cork in the southwes ...

rise approximately 4.3 km northeast of the village between the townlands of Rockhill West, Rockhill East and Tooreenmacauliffe on the southwestern slopes of Mullaghareirk mountain.

References

Towns and villages in County Cork {{Cork-geo-stub

See also

References