Carrigboy National School

Durrus Village

The village of Durrus is situated at the head of Dunmanus Bay in South West Cork. The Four Mile Water River flows at the south side of the village behind the houses.
The word Durrus is a corruption of the Irish 'Dubh Ros', which means black or dark woods. The name of the village was not always Durrus, in fact it was known as Carraigbuí until the 1870's. A public meeting was held in Carraigbuí on March 31st 1870. The M. P. for the area Colonel H. B. Bernard presided over the meeting, which was attended by all the leading citizens of the area. The aim of the meeting was to enhance the progress of the village by adding a money order and a savings bank to the post office and also to change the name of Carraigbuí and substitute it for the more pleasant sounding name of 'Durrus'. It seemed a logical choice of name for the village as Durrus was already the name of the Parish and chapel was also called Durrus. In every way it would be an advantage to change the place name as letters addressed to Carraigbuí were being sent to other Carraigbuís or Carrigboys around the country.
Since that time, the village has been officially listed as Durrus or Dubhros in Irish, but some years ago our own Departmemt of Posts and Telegraphs changed the Irish version of the name to Dúras, which we disapproved of very much. If they wanted to change the spelling surely they should have retained the 'ros' in the place name and called it Dúros. However, even to the present day, some old people refer to the village as Carraigbuí.