https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Durrus,+Co.+Cork/@51.6711046,-9.2985247,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48459fe7ccd270df:0x231e3744ac95441a

General Charles Vallancey Survey Report  1778

He was sent to Ireland to assist in a military survey, remained and became an authority on Irish antiquities.  
He fathered 44 children by three wives. He learnt Irish and became fluent in it.  Some of his theories are now regarded with a degree of scepticism.   He wrote a report on the West Cork area which should also hold true for Durrus at the period: ‘There was only one road between Cork and Bantry; you may now proceed by eight carriage roads beside several horse tracks branching off from these great roads, from Bantry the country is mountainous and from the high road has the appearance of being barren and very thinly populated; yet the valleys abound with, corn and potatoes and the mountains are covered with black cattle. In 1760, twenty years ago it was so thinly inhabited, an army of…