The Beara Way

Beautiful Ireland Without the Crowds

The Caha Mountains are at once imagined and eternal, mythic and ruinous. As ancient as they appear new, like frozen, stone waves under a changing sky. The harrowing road of the Healy Pass slices through them like a trawler with a long wake. Perhaps the best approach to the Beara Peninsula is from this pass, and through it you pass from Kerry to Cork, starting from the tidy town of Kenmare.

The Irish coast, particularly that of the west, is extremely jagged. It looks as if someone tore the edges to bits with a rusty saw. Several hundred islands appear as if they were launched from the landscape in some violent explosion. The southwest of Ireland, noted for it’s warm climate due to the influence of the Gulf Stream, has several long peninsulas that jut out into the Atlantic like fingers of different widths. By far the most popular (and largest), is the Ring of Kerry, a gorgeous, mountain-clad region that unfortunately has become spoiled by the tour buses that rattle down its slender roads. Second in popularity is the Dingle Peninsula just north. Perhaps even more beautiful, Dingle too has been overrun by coachloads of visitors, each elbowing for the best vantage spots to capture Europe’s last sunset each night. But for those wishing to explore the stunning scenery of West Cork and Kerry without the tourist crunch, head south, and make haste, to the arm of land called Beara.

No less spectacular than Dingle or the Ring, and more so, some say, Beara is the place to get away from it all, where mountains greet the sea with a precipitous plunge into the frothy waves. Beara’s principal town and port is the colorful Castletownbere, a quaint place of brightly-painted houses, pubs and shops, protected from the heavy winds of Bantry Bay by Bere Island. This Manhattan-sized chunk of land allows Castletownbere the luxury of a safe and sheltered harbor, according to locals, the second largest natural harbor in the world. Ferries run to Bere Island where the visitor can hike to the top of the islands’ rounded hump; accommodation can be found at a few homes.

On the outskirts of town and beside the remains of sacked O’Sullivan Bere Castle, sits Dunboy Castle, a 19th century house built by the Puxley family, landlords who made their fortune in the nearby copper mines in Allihies. Allihies rests toward the end of the peninsula, a one-horse town without the horse. No more than one dirt track between impeccably colored homes, this village overlooks the sweeping Ballydonegan Bay and its broad, white strand. The prosperous heyday of Allihies was in the middle of the nineteenth century when copper was extensively mined on the nearby mountain slopes. Today the mine entrances pockmark the boggy fields and steep inclines but are fenced off and closed to visitors. The intrepid and curious still plunge into these dark depths by merely hopping the enclosures, though it is certainly not advised.

Dursey Island is situated just two hundred yards from the very tip of Beara, separated by a narrow, tide-wracked channel. Unique among the hundreds of islands of the Irish west, Dursey is the only one connected to the mainland by a cable car. This simple but reliable contraption crosses the sound throughout the day and is the principal link to the mainland of Dursey’s 198 summer residents (12 in the winter). A sign posting distances to New York and Moscow can be found at the edge of the sound. Consisting of roughly four miles of mountainous terrain with few amenities of any kind, the island is a haven for several species of birds including hawks, falcons, guillemots, gannets and the largest colony of fulmars in Ireland. Hikes to the summit tops, both on Dursey and the nearby mainland, offer stunning views of the Beara coast, the Ring of Kerry and the Skellig Rocks, two ghost-like islands that seem to rise out of the North Atlantic mist.

Beara offers a sight that appalingly escapes mention in many of the Ireland tour books: the Mare’s Tail Waterfall, also called the Hungry Hill Waterfall. Though scarcely more than a trickle, water here plunges 600 feet straight down from a small lake on the shoulder of Hungry Hill into an idyllic valley of indescribable beauty. A small road off the main Glengariff-Castletownbere road deadends at a farmhouse. Hop the gate and follow the path into the vale to cross the boggy ground. Here in this green, wide hollow of numerous sheep, the water falls and collects into tiny streams that lead to the sea, just behind you. Against the backdrop of Cork’s tallest mountain, this is a spot not to miss.

Those interested in reaching the summit of Hungry Hill have a few options, though from the base of the waterfall is not one of them. Continue west further down the road and turn before a small church graveyard and follow signs. There is no marked path to the summit but the careful can choose a course from the sheep pastures that run up its sides. There is also an approach from the north. Views from the 2100-foot summit, when not blanketed in cloud, are stupendous.

It would be a grave injustice not to mention here one of the finest long distance walks in all of Ireland, the 120-mile Beara Way, a wild road-and trail ramble along and below the mountain spine of the peninsula, all the way to Dursey Island. Side tracks lead to the summits of Hungry Hill and the imposing Sugar Loaf, further east. This is the best way to experience Beara.

Perhaps the most striking Beara road scenery is that of the Healy Pass, the cut that bisects the mountains of the peninsula’s spine. Immediately after leaving the village of Lauragh and the shores of the Kenmare River the climb begins and soon the Ring of Kerry comes in view, with Carrantouhill, Ireland’s tallest mountain, directly in front. Nestled in an opulently lush valley halfway up the pass is Glandore Lake. With turf fires burning, several farmhouses pepper the lake’s edges, redolent of England’s Lake District or Switzerland with the dramatic mountain backdrop. Further up the road narrows and the land gets rockier, almost lunar. A wonderful book and craft shop awaits the driver at the 1300-foot crest. Any bit of Beara history can likely be found on the shelves of this tidy place; the endearing owner can fill you in on the rest. The view looking south to Bantry Bay is no less spectacular than the opposite and the serpentine road snakes down between rocks and the omnipresent sheep eventually to the bay. The road ends in Adrigole, a village so small one better not blink. A fine campsite is just off the main road.

Fans of prehistory and megalithic Ireland will find quite a lot of treasures on Beara. These include the Ardgroom Stone Circle, The Ballnahowen Wedge Grave, the Lehanmore Ring Fort, and the largest Ogham Stone in the world, to name just a few. Beara also boasts a handful of fine golf courses, the most popular of which is just east of Castletownbere. This area is also the best place for sailing and windsurfing. Shore angling is possible anywhere the cliffs and surf allow and is quite popular in Eyeries. Glenbeg and Darryvegan are great trout lakes as are the Cloonee Loughs east of Lauragh.

The road east leads down to the popular Cork town of Glengarriff, notable for its warm, near-tropical climate and the palm trees that hug the inner reaches of Bantry Bay. Both Glengarriff and Kenmare are the entry points to the spectacular wild of Beara, a peninsula for those of us blessed, or stricken, with Irish wanderlust.

Sean Hickey
July 2001