Inheritance explores the parishes of Aghabullogue, Inniscarra, and Ovens on the northern valleyside of the Inniscarra Reservoir, Co. Cork. Through fieldwork and interviews with local people, Kieran McCarthy focuses on several aspects of the region's cultural heritage, providing insights into place-making, community roots, and identity. This work dabbles in the architecture of heritage and its interaction with life in an Irish river valley. The book is focused on the beauty and structure of things, which highlight, debate, and celebrate our cultural heritage not only from the past but also what we have inherited in the present. The book is a study of the rich language of images and symbols that are so inherent in rural environments. In fact, the many monuments on the local landscape could be described as part of a vast and varied open-air history book just waiting to be read.

Kieran McCarthy is an author, writer, geographer, educationalist, and local councillor. Since 1999, he has been writing a weekly cultural heritage column in the Cork Independent. He has published seven books on Cork City and its region showcasing its varied histories and geographies.