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Home , Bantry, Beara Peninsula, Garnish Island

WEST COASTAL ROUTE - Scenic Splendour, Local Colour

GENERAL The route from to covers approximately 100 miles following the ORIENTATION main N71 from Kenmare to and then the R600 from Clonakilty to Kinsale. The western part is the most scenic and interesting. Leaving to the south of There are innumerable opportunities to detour to some of the most beautiful coastal Kenmare leads us to view in , popular market towns such as Schull, fascinating villages such as one of the most Crookhaven, idyllic islands off Baltimore, unspoiled walking on Sheeps Head scenic journeys in Peninsula. Ireland – the Coastal Route to Our recommended route (full day) would be to leave Kenmare and either follow the Kinsale. N71 to or follow the R571 onto the and reach Glengarriff via The Healy Pass and . The famous gardens on Illnacullin (Garnish The main N71 route Island) in Glengarriff are worth a visit. to Clonakilty and then the R600 to Kinsale From Glengarriff continue to and visit . From Bantry we offers innumerable recommend either walking on Sheeps Head Peninsula or visiting the detours and side area. For the latter take the R591 through to Toomore. After Mizen Head routes to some visit the nearby village of Crookhaven. Returning to the main N71 route, Schull is a gorgeous places. popular market town.

Colourful villages, Back on the main route is the famous town of Skibbereen. South is the port of colourful people and Baltimore from where ferries depart to Sherkin and Clear Islands. The quiet villages natural splendour of Castletownshend, Union Hall & Glandore offer an alternative route to Roscarberry. make west Cork one of the most Between Roscarberry and Kinsale is the popular town of Clonakilty. fascinating places in Ireland.

WEST CORK COASTAL ROUTE - Scenic Splendour, Local Colour

WEST CORK XGLENGARRIFF XSKIBBEREEN TOWNS Glengarriff is famed for its natural (Irish: An Sciobairín), often shortened Glengarriff beauty. Situated on where to "Skibb", means 'Little Boat Harbour’. Bantry the mountains meet the sea, it is the Skibbereen southern gateway to the Beara The town of Skibbereen developed on Schull Peninsula, and has acquired a fine the banks of the River Ilen just where Ballydehob reputation for the great variety of the river turns to flow west towards the Roscarberry shops, galleries, accommodation, sea. Known as the capital of West Cork, Clonakilty restaurants and pubs. it is the 'hub' from which the many

Baltimore 'sparkling jewels' of the area can be The garden island of Ilnacullin (Garnish reached: scenic harbours; colourful

Island) lies in the harbour, s short boat fishing villages; secluded beaches; ride from the town. Carbery's Hundred Isles..

Skibbereen was one of many towns in XBANTRY Ireland to suffer very badly during the

period of the Irish Famine in the 1840s.

Bantry, in the heart of West Cork, is a This era is remembered in The Great

region of lush vegetation, palm trees Famine Exhibition at Skibbereen and semi-tropical flowers. Hemmed in Heritage Centre. Follow the Skibbereen by high mountain ridges, an azure blue Trail, a historical walking tour of old sea and cascading mountain streams, it Skibbereen and visit sites which have is a place of unparalled beauty where direct links with the . the landscape changes with every mood of wind and sky. XSCHULL Bantry Schull is a seaside village with a welcoming harbour on the Mizen Peninsula. Popular and laid back, Schull has a variety of pubs, restaurants and shops. A country market is held (overlooking the harbour) every day during the summer.

Bantry, at the head of the bay, is a busy XBALLYDEHOB Schull Harbour market town and fishing port. Bantry House, open to the public, is East of Schull is the quaintly named, spectacularly situated and exuberantly Charming and colourful village of furnished. It is one of Ireland's most Ballydehob. Enjoy a walk over the 12 attractive Great Houses, full of Arch Bridge from which you have treasures collected by various a wonderful view over the estuary and generations of Earls of Bantry from all its flora and fauna. parts of the world. In the courtyard of Bantry House, The French Armada Apart from being a place of peace and Exhibition Centre has been developed. beauty, Ballydehob is home to several Skibbereen This features the ill-fated French famous artists, writers, sculptors and Armada invasion of December, 1796. craft workers.

It also boasts a variety of shops, internationally renowned restaurants, including Annies where tradition dictates a pre-dinner drink across the road in Levis pub, as traditional as you could wish to find. WEST CORK COASTAL ROUTE - Scenic Splendour, Local Colour

X ROSCARBERRY XCASTLETOWNSHEND

Surrounded by miles of sandy beaches, A small, tranquil and pretty village 5 Roscraberry is another colourful coastal miles south of Skibbereen. town. The town beach, The Warren and Castletownshend is a unique village in the beach at Owenahincha, have that its main feature is the steep, retained their Blue Flag status. precipitous decline down to the quay and the Townshend Castle, where the family of that name still resides. An unusual number of graciously designed, large, stone built houses, most of which date from the 18th century, make up this relatively small village.

Working Hard,

Roscarberry X CLONAKILTY

Roscarberry hosts a wonderful diversity Clonakilty's past merges seamlessly of wild life – birds, butterflies and other with its present in such a way that the insects and sea mammals. The town town has modernised while losing none itself is situated at the head of a tidal of its charm. The library and council inlet about a mile inland from the sea offices are housed in an old corn mill and above a large lagoon that was once while the Post Office now occupies the a part of the tidal estuary. However former Presbyterian Church. Sunset at Mizen access to the sea has been restricted by the causeway that now crosses the estuary thus forming a permanent lagoon margined at its northern end by reedbeds.

X BALTIMORE

Baltimore is a gateway village to the Castletownshend islands of Roaringwater Bay. The principal islands are Sherkin, Clear and Heir Islands.

Clonakilty is a favourite amongst The navigational Beacon at the entrance tourists as it simply offers everything; to Baltimore Harbour is the image most An exciting nightlife encompasses a often associated with the village. traditional music focus as well as Positioned high above the channel contemporary entertainment. between the mainland and Sherkin

Island, it is visible from near and far Crookhaven A short walk from the centre of town is and visitors are rewarded with a Model Village Exhibition which is a Lighthouse spectacular views towards Sherkin, reconstruction of Clonakilty in the Cape Clear, the harbour and the mouth 1940s. Clonakilty also houses the West of the Ilen River. Cork Regional Museum which pays

tribute to Clonakilty's industrial past - The remains of the O'Driscoll Castle, especially its linen industry. Dun na Sead, tower over the village and

are a reminder of the once powerful Inchydoney beach now home to a O'Driscoll clan who controlled much of thriving surfing culture as well as being the South West for a number of a terriffic location for swimming and centuries. walking.

WEST CORK COASTAL ROUTE - Scenic Splendour, Local Colour

V

WEST CORK X ILNACULLIN X MIZEN LIGHT ATTRACTIONS Located in the sheltered harbour of Ireland’s most southerly point at Mizen Ilnacullin Gardens Glengarriff in Bantry Bay, Ilnacullin Head is well worth a visit. Sheeps Head (also known as ) is a Mizen Head Light small island of 15 hectares (37 acres) Mizen Head Signal Station, built to save lives off the treacherous rocks at Bantry House known to horticulturists and lovers of Ireland’s most south-westerly point, Crookhaven trees and shrubs all around the world as five miles from Goleen, is open to the West Cork Model Rail an island garden of rare beauty. The gardens of Ilnacullin owe their existence public. An award-winning Maritime Drombeg to the creative partnership, some eighty Museum and Heritage Attraction, this Skibbereen Heritage years ago, of Annan Bryce, then owner authentic all-weather experience is a Abbeystrewery Abbey of the island and Harold Peto, architect must-see with its spectacular location RoscarberryCathedral and garden designer. Access to the on high cliffs with swirling Atlantic Courtmacsherry Island is by small ferry boats and Ocean tides. From the Car park and licensed 60-seater water buses Visitor Centre, the Signal Station is a (additional charge). ten minute walk along the path, down the 99 steps and across the Arched

Bridge. The Mizen is famous for its wildflowers and sightings of wildlife, XSHEEPS HEAD PENINSULA dolphins, whales, seals, gannets,

kittiwakes, choughs – the bird Unspoiled and dramatic, the Sheep’s migration north-south flight path is just Head Peninsula is the smallest of a mile off shore. Ireland’s ‘five toes’.

Ilnacullin (Garnish Island)

Drombeg Stone Circle The Waymarked Way walking route South, the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, traverses the peninsula so drive some Ireland’s Teardrop, was the last landfall and walk as much as required to the seen by many emigrants to America end of the Peninsula. and one of Marconi’s first telegraph

stations. Mizen Signal Station had the

first Radio Beacon in Ireland, 1931; the X BANTRY HOUSE history of Safety at Sea communications is here, Wireless Bantry House is not only one of the Signals, Racon, GPS and DGPS. finest historic houses in Ireland, but it Crookhaven also commands one of the best views Displays about the lives of the Irish overlooking Bantry Bay in west Cork. It Lights Keepers who left the Mizen in has been open to the public since 1946, 1993, The Bridge with full Navigational the first to do so in the country and Aids Simulator, Automatic Weather possibly also in the British Isles. The Station, Maps & Guided Tours. house is still owned and lived in by

Egerton Shelswell-White, who is a direct descendant of Richard White (1, Earl of Bantry) and his family.

WEST CORK COASTAL ROUTE - Scenic Splendour, Local Colour

XSKIBBEREEN HERITAGE CENTRE XCROOKHAVEN

The tiny hamlet of Crookhaven lies The Heritage Centre is located in the about as far down in south-west Cork as award winning, beautifully restored Old you can go without falling into the sea - Gasworks Building. tucked snugly on the sheltered side of a narrow neck of land which creates a The Great Famine Commemoration deep inlet - the 'crooked haven' which

Exhibition commemorates the tragic Lough Hyne near gave the little settlement its name. period in the 1840s that is known in Skibbereen Irish History as the Great Hunger. Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas, and the events of the era are depicted using local characters and events.

The Lough Hyne Visitor Centre explains the unique nature of this salt water marine lake, Ireland’s first Marine Nature Reserve.

Other features include an archaeology It's the very epitome of a sleepy fishing trail of the Skibbereen area, displays on village. Brightly-coloured boats bob at the Old Gasworks Building and anchor; pastel-coloured cottages information on the species living on the slumber in the sunshine along the River Ilen. sloping street.

Roscarberry Escorted evening Historical Walking A pub spills tables and chairs out on to Tours of Skibbereen town on Tuesday Cathedral the quayside among the drying fishing and Saturday at 6.30pm from the nets, a small shop sells groceries and Centre. Please telephone to guarantee a postcards as well as shrimping nets, place. buckets and spades.

It looks as though nothing ever has or XDROMBEG STONE CIRCLE ever could happen to disturb its peace.

Drombeg is probably most

Ballydehob famous stone circle, it is a recumbent circle with the recumbent or altar stone XABBEYSTREWERY ABBEY Bridge lying to the south-west. The circle Abbeystrewery Abbey is located 1 mile consists of seventeen pillar stones that west of Skibbereen on the northern side are graded from the two large portal of the River Ilen. This is the remains of stones, each 2 metres high, at the a 14th century Cistercian abbey and is north-east towards the recumbent the site of mass graves from the Great stone. The pillar stones are local Famine, when Skibbereen suffered sandstone and the recumbent has two particularly harshly. The shadow of cup marks and what looks like an axe - those days remained over the town for carving on its upper surface. many decades.

Also present at the site is a a communal cooking pit with a hearth. Hot stones were taken from the fire and dropped into the water trough, XCASTLE SALEM recent tests have shown they could boil seventy gallons of water in about fifteen This 15th century castle is one of the minutes. best preserved castles in Ireland. 70 feet high with massive walls and Located east of Glandore Village between loopholes, and the usual spiral stairway. Leap and Roscarberry. The original castle dates from about 1470.