School: An Clochar, Dún Mánmhaí (roll number 5636)

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1. The Big Snow

   

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   The year of the Big Snow was 1855. It has been called the big snow and still retains the title, as no snow has ever fallen since to compete with it. The night before the snow fell, the weather was very calm, though cold, so that the snow fall was quite an unexpected one. It fell in February, and lasted for three months. The snow was nine feet high on the ground and in the glens and valleys it was as high as thirteen feet. It covered most of the small thatched houses. Roadways were blocked, so that travelling was out of the question. It was so deep and thick that it could not be thawed or melted.
   As the wells were situated too far away from the houses, the people had no water, and therefore had to fill the kettles and pots with snow, which they melted in order to get something to drink. Fuel, too for the fires was unprocurable, as the men could not get to the bogs, so that the only thing for the people to do was to burn some of the furniture.
   Lots of lives were lost, owing to absence of food. The men used to feed the cattle in the yard if possible. Many people were caught out in it too, as it came so unexpectedly. Numbers of travelling-men, having lost their way, perished and were

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. processes and phenomena
      1. frost and snow (~299)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Nell Mc Carthy

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Dunmanway, Co. Cork