Official tourism website for Northern Ireland
En

Dirt, Disease and Death: A Tour of Comber's Medical History EHOD 2025

The Square, Comber, County Down, BT23 5DT
Dirt, Disease and Death: A Tour of Comber's Medical History EHOD 2025

About

Take a walk back in time with Dr Rebecca Watterson and discover how Comber people faced disease, death, and the Doctor! From smallpox to cholera, surgery to quackery, this tour covers birth, death, and everything in between!

This guided tour will tell the stories of those people who lived in this once-rural town learning to face the ever-changing landscape of disease that came with the Industrial Revolution. Disease outbreaks, poverty, and dangerous working conditions were a part of the daily life of the people of Comber. Without the NHS which did not come into existence until the 1940s, exactly how did this community manage ill health? Where did women give birth? Where did people get their medicine? What diseases were ravaging the town? Did working conditions have an impact on people’s health and illness? What did they die from? Did they have funerals? Did class and economic circumstance have an impact on how people experience illness and medicine? Medical history is an often forgotten but important part of the story of individual lives and of communities and places. Medicine has often been considered heroic and ever-progressing, but its history can sometimes be darker and more nuanced. As you walk around the town, remember the working classes who built our local industry often faced with harrowing working and living conditions, the women who worked, held families together and had to often consider pregnancy as a threat to their lives, the mentally ill and disabled people navigating a society that often misunderstood and relegated them to the sidelines, and the least fortunate trying to survive in the poorhouse and later the workhouse.

Everyone who lived and working in Comber was and is a part of its medical history. Learn more about their lives and experiences of health, medicine, and death on Comber’s first medical history walking tour.

25 per session, 1 session, book on website https://www.comberhistory.com/

Book Tickets

Guide Prices

Ticket TypeTicket Tariff
TicketFree

Note: Prices are a guide only and may change on a daily basis.

Book Tickets Online

Add Dirt, Disease and Death: A Tour of Comber's Medical History EHOD 2025 to your Itinerary

Check availability for Dirt, Disease and Death: A Tour of Comber's Medical History EHOD 2025 (opens in a new window)

Close window

Call direct on:

Tel+44 (0) 28 9082 3207

Map & Directions

Opening Times

Season (14 Sept 2025)
DayTimes
Sunday14:00 - 16:00

What's Nearby

  1. Situated in The Square in Comber, it was erected in 1845 to commemorate the bravery of…

    0.01 miles away
  2. Comber Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church was built on a site donated by James Andrews…

    0.24 miles away
  3. This charming park is situated around the upper slopes and top of Scrabo Hill, near the…

    2.14 miles away
  4. At the top of Scrabo Hill, overlooking Strangford Lough and the whole of North Down, is…

    2.39 miles away
  5. WWT Castle Espie is an extraordinary day out for the whole family. Escape the everyday,…

    2.4 miles away
  6. Located in Newtownards’ beautifully restored Georgian Town Hall in the centre of town,…

    2.94 miles away
  7. In July 2000, Kiltonga Nature Reserve became the first site in the UK to be awarded BT…

    3.51 miles away
  8. At the south east edge of Newtownards these substantial remains of a Dominican (Black)…

    3.53 miles away
  9. Streamvale Farm is nestled in the rolling hills on the edge of Belfast. The family farm…

    3.54 miles away
  10. At the east of High Street in Newtownards the Market Cross was built in 1636 but was…

    3.58 miles away
  11. Movilla Abbey, Methodist and Church of Ireland.

    As important as Bangor, Movilla was…

    4.25 miles away
  12. The gallery seeks to promote quality Irish art in a relaxed atmosphere and displays a…

    4.37 miles away
  13. Stormont Estate is a Green Flag Award winning public park recognised as one of Northern…

    4.92 miles away
  14. The Museum examines Ireland's role in the 1st World War with special reference to the…

    5.1 miles away
  15. Parliament Buildings is home to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the legislative body for…

    5.13 miles away
  16. Shandon Park Mound is one of Belfast’s few surviving medieval earthworks, reached by a…

    5.13 miles away

Virtual Tour

Map & Directions

Recently Viewed

  1. Shankill Parish Church Lurgan EHOD 2025

    Type

    EHOD (European Heritage Open Days)

    Shankill Parish Church Lurgan will be hosting an open exhibition as part of a church 300 Year…

  2. Carnlough Heritage Hub EHOD 2025

    Type

    EHOD (European Heritage Open Days)

    The interpretation display in The Heritage Hub at Carnlough Town Hall features stories of the…

  3. Belfast Harbour Commissioners EHOD 2025

    Type

    EHOD (European Heritage Open Days)

    The Harbour Office has been the HQ of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, the body charged with the…

Back to Top

Tourism Northern Ireland

Don't Miss