What is the Pipe Roll of Cloyne? For those who prefer a more formal title, it is the Rotulus Pipae Clonensis. An east Cork Doomsday
Book, you might say, it is beautifully produced in a limited hardback edition as a social history of Cloyne, between 1216 and 1478.
Cloyne is proud of its past. The Pipe Roll was edited by two leading medieval scholars, Mr K.W. Nicholls of the Department of
History at UCC, and Mr Paul McCotter, a distinguished Cork historian of the period who took an independent Masters at UCC.
Piob Rolla Cluain Uamha, is its Irish title. The Cloyne society has published the limited edition at £25 and it is an important event for the group whose efforts have done much to keep alive the varied cultural heritage of the area where Bishop Berkeley presided from 1734 to 1755.
The Pipe Roll of Cloyne was a mediaeval document that gave an insight into the system of land ownership within the diocese of
Cloyne. The original parchment roll was 17ft 8 in long by 7 1/4
ins-wide and was composed of 10 membranes sewn together.
It was found in the registry of St Colman's Cathedral, Cloyne, in the middle of the last century and then loaned by the Dean and
Chapter to Dr Richard Caulfield, librarian of Queen's College, Cork, who expanded every contracted Latin name to its full length.