The owner of Blarney Castle has donated the family archive to Cork City and County Archives.
Sir Charles Colthurst commissioned the cataloguing of items found scattered around Blarney Castle and then faced the dilemma of what to do with them. The collection of 4,000 items is now safely housed at Cork City and County Archives.
The Colthurst Collection contains hundreds of family photographs cataloguing the formal and informal moments of three leading Anglo Irish families in County Cork.
Sir Charles Colthurst urges others to do likewise and deposit historic papers and artefacts to local archives rather than have them end up in collections abroad.
Brian McGee, Senior Archivist at Cork City and County Archives, describes some of the items in the collection which includes correspondence relating to the estate management, deeds and personal family correspondence. There is also a large collection of family photographs including early glassplates.
The collection is considered to be one of the finest family collections to be donated to a public archive.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 23 January 2010. The reporter is Jennie O'Sullivan.
