Special Collections' & Archives' Subject Support: BEES

Each year Special Collections welcomes a Transition Year group from the School of BEES. The School of BEES Transition Year Programme gives secondary school students the chance to discover science at UCC in a structured way by studying and working alongside BEES staff and students for a week. The students have the opportunity to work in different areas including Plant Science, Zoology, Environmental Science and Geology. Part of the School of BEES Transition Year Programme includes visits to the Eureka Centre, the Boole Library and a guided tour of UCC campus.

Students in previous years have viewed:

• Buffon, Georges-Louis Lelerc. Histoire naturelle des oiseaux. De l'Imprimerie royale, 1770-1786.
• Darwin, Charles. Geological Observations on Coral Reefs, Volcanic Islands, and on South America: Being the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, Under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., During the Years 1832 to 1836. London: Smith, Elder, 1851
• Butler, E.J. An Account of the Genus Pythium and Some Chytridiaceae. Pusa: Agricultural Research Institute, 1907. 
• Knowles, Matilda. “The Maritime and Marine Lichens of Howth.” Dublin: Royal Dublin Society; [etc], 1913.

John K'Eogh's Botanalogia Universalis Hibernica is listed in the Queen's College Cork catalogue of 1860. John K'Eogh (c.1681–1754) was a clergyman and naturalist, and was born in Strokestown and educated by his father prior to attending Trinity in 1705. He was chaplain to the 4th Baron Kingston at Mitchelstown Castle.

The Botanalogia is an alphabetical list of plants growing in Ireland, with their names given in English, Latin, and Irish. It describes the plants' medicinal properties and was based mainly on the plants grown in Kingston's garden. The work is of historical value as evidence of the plants which were cultivated at that time, which include orange and lemon trees grown in what was a very early greenhouse. The Botanalogia remained for many years as one of the standard reference works on the flora of this island. K'Eogh also wrote Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica (Dublin, 1739); and A Vindication of the Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin, 1748).

Further information relating to various plants may also be found in a herbal. An example of this is Salmon's English Herbal. Salmon's English Herbal gives a detailed entry on "Bears Breech."

Archival Collections

Contained within personal papers/landed estates collections can be sketchbooks/scrapbooks/diaries/photographs belonging to individuals that illustrate their travels around Ireland, England and Europe, giving a snapshot of landscape/wildlife visited and observed, and sometimes even mementos preserved e.g. dried flowers/fauna. 

Some Estates may have surviving hunting/game/fishing records of wildlife over a number of decades e.g. pheasant/rabbit, or activities of the land or coastline e.g. farming/forestry/fishery under their Estate Administration section.

These archival collections include:

• The Bantry Estate Collection (Co. Cork)
• The Bantry Estate Collection: Ancillary (Co. Cork)
• The Grehan Estate Collection (Co. Cork)
• The Nancy McCarthy Collection
• Countess Alice Murphy Collection
• The Ryan of Inch Collection (Co. Tipperary)
• The Villers-Stuart Collection (Co. Waterford)