Kilcully – Life before Scouting

Kilcully before Scouting

These photographs show Kilcully House and some of its original outbuildings around the time the property was acquired for Scouting. Before becoming a Scout campsite, Kilcully was a farmhouse and grounds owned by Dick Murphy and his wife.

Although the property had yet to be purchased, its potential as a permanent campsite had already been recognised. In 1969, a National Orienteering event was held at Kilcully, marking the beginning of its association with Scouting.

The property was purchased in 1970 by Hubert O’Donovan on behalf of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland. From these relatively modest beginnings, generations of volunteers would gradually transform the house, farm buildings and surrounding fields into the campsite we know today.