Request: Could the next visitor replace the log book for me please? I'm no longer able to visit this cache due to international relocation so it's either lose a cache at an amazing location like this or some help... Feel free to dispose of the mess that's there now. If you think a new container would do better, I'll bow to your judgement but if you do replace, please take the old one away for disposal. Just let me know if you did help.
A very surprising location when you get there. While I've listed it as "non-wheelchair".... there is an extremely steep ramp from parking to cache location, next to the steps provided so theoretically could be tackled with a helper but would be an uncomfortable experience I suspect.
Courtaparteen chapel was a 6th century church/chapel and graveyard. Now the chapel, said to have links with Saint Rúadhán is a ruin, it's still a remarkably moving place to visit not only for the incredible coastal scenery but for the fact that so many local families have been buried here over the years. Graves range from beyond readable in years, to 2011, so still an active burial ground today.
The cache itself is outside the gate - but don't come all this way to just "get another smiley" - after signing the log, enter the gate and spend some time in contemplation of the incredible amount of local history represented in this small churchyard. Read the gravestones. Many local farmers worshiped and took mass in the now ruined chapel on a weekly basis, which now also has graves within it's walls. Almost all of the names represented on these rocks were people who were born, lived their lives and ultimately were buried here in this small, beautiful corner of Ireland.
While there are many Celtic Cross gravestones of various types to be seen as there are in so many Irish graveyards, what ultimately drew my curiosity here were the numerous small gravestones that bore no names that could be read any more - but must have represented at least one individual's life and ultimate death. Dating back to the famine? There are no records that I can find online at present.
The cache itself is a small one for such a remote location, I'd freely admit and I may upgrade it's size (slightly) in future - but it's the only size that could be hidden where I wanted to place one for the time being.
No stones should be moved in searching for the cache - it's not under any stones.
