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Finding Churchtown
Churchtown village is located just 4km west of
the N20, half way between Cork and Limerick. There is an excellent
two-hour train service from Dublin to Charleville or Mallow where
you will find taxi services available to transfer you to the village.
Cork International Airport is an hour by car from Churchtown and
Shannon International Airport is 90 minutes.
If
you are driving from Dublin then we recommend that you come to Limerick
City and then look for signs to Cork or the N20. Then about 5 miles
south of Charleville you will see road signs pointing towards Churchtown
which is on the right at Shinanagh railway gate crossing just south
of Ballyhea village. There is a derelict coach house on the left
across the road from where you turn off.
[For regular visitors we recommend a more complex
route skirting the Ballyhoura Mountains at Kilfinane which involves
turning off at Cashel on the main Dublin / Cork "Interstate"
and travelling via Golden, Tipperary, Kilfinane, Ardpatrick, Ballyhea
where you join the N20 just 4 miles from Churchtown village. "This
is the way my father, Jack Murphy(1920 -2000) showed me to get to
Cashel from Churchtown but the roads are narrow and not for the
faint hearted", Gerry Murphy says.]
If you are coming from Cork you stay on the N20
and about 3 miles north of Buttevant you will see signs for Churchtown
pointing left at Shininagh railway gates. In Buttevant you also
have the option of taking the "coast road" by turning
left on to Route 522 at the northern end of the town. Watch carefully
for a (dangerous) turn off (more of a veer off really) to the right
at Buffers Cross about 3 miles north west of Buttevant. The village
is less than a mile from Buffers Cross.
For those coming in by air (!) Churchtown is located
at Latitude 52.27145 North of the Equator and Longitude 8.73125
West of Greenwich and we suggest you get permission from the local
GAA to land your helicopter on their playing field beside the village!
These precise measurements are courtesy of Darius Bartlett, Geography
Department faculty at University College Cork who visited Churchtown
on Monday 27th May 2002. He was able to receive information from
10 of the possible 22 satellites "hovering" over Churchtown.
Click
here to find out the history of the name of the village.
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