Home | Cahir | Kinsale | Crookhaven | Crookhaven | Sneem | Sneem | Dingle | Dingle | Doolin | Oranmore | Boyle | Carrick on Shannon | Roosky | Lanesborough | Lanesborough | Shannonbridge | Banagher | Bunratty | Map
Monday, May 12
The
breakfast room is freezing this morning as the wind whips off the coast. It’s
cold and rainy outside as I sit and type. No one is up yet and despite the
weather, it is quite peaceful looking out of the breakfast room. Our plan today
was to make it out to Mizen Head so that I could finally cross the bridge.
I’ve been here three times and each time it was closed.
After
breakfast, we headed for Mizen Head. We arrived as it was supposed to open, but
there was no sign of the keeper of the keys. The Irish are wonderful people, but
they were not raised on a diet of punctuality. We decided to walk towards the
bridge just to see if it was open. We met a few people who had already tried so
we decided to wait.
The
trail to the bridge has a well know set of stairs with 99 steps. It is closed
from the top, but open from the bottom. My guess is that repair is needed. The
steps provide a nice morning work out.
The
station keepers arrived and we were able to buy our tickets and head to the
lighthouse. The walk is impressive
with the Mizen cliffs making an impressive stand against the relentless surf.
This is the most southwesterly point of Ireland and was the last image of the
green isle that the immigrants saw as they headed for North America. So many of
them vowed they would return and so few did.
It’s
about a 5-10 minute walk to the bridge and I finally got to cross. The weather
was beautiful and clear but very windy. The signal station sits on a precipice
on this tiny island connected by the bridge, which is suspended a couple hundred
feet above the water. Unfortunately, photos don’t really capture the grandeur
of the view from the bridge. The cliffs rise to either side, and depending on
where you are, you can look through this “canyon” and see bits and pieces of
two inlets to the north. It became clear that we would truly have to “hang on
to our hats” as the wind made several attempts to remove my hood.
Mizen
Vision is the visitor center at the lighthouse and is worth a look. The real
star of the show is again, the view. The wind was overpowering on the ledge
where the lighthouse rests and it felt as if I could be lifted off the platform
and dashed on the rocks below. Hearing anything but the roar in my ears was
impossible. Still, I lingered and took some pictures and wondered about the
feelings that were felt by those as they peered at this rock until it
disappeared behind them. A lonely, dangerous, desperate trip lay ahead of them
and this would be their last memory of the only land they had ever known.
I
climbed the 99 steps coming back and we made it to the cars for the next follow
the leader escapade. The goal was to see Beara,
but as we approached Glangarriff, it began to look like that might not fit into
the day. It was already well past noon, so we headed on to Kenmare and Sneem. I
still haven’t made it to the end of Beara, so that will have to happen on
another trip.
The
drive on N71 over Caha Pass is impressive and is still one of my favorite
drives. The terrain is barren at the top. Before the rock tunnel is the thin
ribbon of a road that leads to Barley Lake, which we did not take this time. It
is certainly worth the drive, but we headed on towards through the tunnels and
towards Sneem. I have been across this road four times now, and this was the
first time that sunshine decided to accompany us.
The
road into Kenmare descends
from the pass and slowly winds it’s way into town. Kenmare
(two different links here) is as picturesque a town as you will find. Sitting at
the point where the Kenmare River begins to make up it’s mind to become a bay
and the Atlantic Ocean, it is a small tidy village with loads of shopping and
nice places to eat. The plan was to head out to Tahilla
Cove Guest House and settle in and relax.
Both
rooms had balconies that looked out on Tahilla Cove and eventually Kenmare Bay.
James and Dierdre run a wonderful place where it is easy to waste away an
afternoon or week just watching the tide rise and fall as the day passes. The
lawn extends down to the pier, which extends well out into the water at high
tide and on a warm day, this is paradise. The fascinating aspect of this area of
Ireland (and the Beara Peninsula) is that the vegetation has almost a tropical
feel too it. Palm trees are common site. This was a cool May, so the weather
wasn’t feeling real tropical though there was certainly plenty of moisture.
After
getting settled it was decided that eating would be a good thing, but dragging
away from the Guest House was not what we wanted to do. None-the-less, we headed
back to Kenmare. Tahilla is about tem miles outside Kenmare so it’s not a
short drive. Even though the road runs along the river, it is one of the rare
straight roads that you will find in Ireland. It also gets a fair amount of
traffic and is in pretty poor shape making for a bumpy, kidney jarring ride. At
least we were all back in one car. Mille and Felicity went shopping and Bill and
I went shopping for a place to drink beer. We bellied up at O’Donnabhain’s
and found what we were looking for. Our mouths were dry and the beer was wet. It
made for the perfect relationship. This was clearly not a secret location as our
wives found us without much trouble. Since we were already comfortable, we
decided to stay and eat. The pub grub was quite good and the fish and chips here
were probably the best I had on the trip.
| Home | Cahir | Kinsale | Crookhaven | Crookhaven | Sneem | Sneem | Dingle | Dingle | Doolin | Oranmore | Boyle | Carrick on Shannon | Roosky | Lanesborough | Lanesborough | Shannonbridge | Banagher | Bunratty | Map |