Scaffolding is being removed as restoration works St Anne's Church in Shandon near completion
Nearly €600,000 has been spent on restoring the clockfaces and mechanism along with renewed stonework
Cork City Council assisted with three refurbishment projects on the historic structure – to its clocks, its bells supports, and its original 300-year-old front door.
The clock was installed in 1847 by Cork Corporation making it the oldest four-faced clock in the British Isles before the construction of Big Ben in London.
It is known locally as ‘the four-faced liar’ as the four faces of the clock did not historically show exactly the same time.
Scaffolding had to be carefully designed for the church tower to allow access to the four clock faces and for localised external repair to the stonework.
The clock is now working and all four faces of the clock restored to include the repainting and gilding of the clock numerals the reintroduction of the minute markers - an element which has been missing since the 1960s.
Shandon’s famous quirk – the four faces of the clock showing slightly different times - has been maintained, with the four faces only showing the same time on the hour.
