48 HOURS IN WEST CORK
Where better to feel November rain than the wild coast of West Cork, asks
We spent family summers in Schull, Co Cork, examining sea anemones and collecting crabs while marvelling that sailing was on the local school curriculum. In recent years, it’s the winter months in West Cork that beguile – low fogs hovering over the water in Roaringwater Bay, blustery coastal walks, and rainy afternoons providing the perfect excuse to sit over a long lunch.
Even in this off-season, Katarina Runske welcomes guests to Grove House (grovehouseschull.com), a period home just outside Schull, where boutique bedrooms command stunning views over the bay. There’s an illustrious guest book – George Bernard Shaw left a short note in 1904 and Jack B Yeats and the literary duo Somerville and Ross (Edith Somerville and Violet Martin) were also guests.
Take a drive from Schull to Goleen to find an altar wedge tomb in Aderawinney. One of a dozen Neolithic tombs on the peninsula, it has to be easiest to access. Sitting in a dramatic location overlooking Toormore Bay, it was the site of ritual practices into the 18th century.
Continue on to Mizen Head to visit Ireland’s most south-westerly point, which juts out into the crashing waves of the Atlantic. Spend time looking for seals, migrating birds or even humpback whales before tackling the famous 99 steps to the Signal Station, home to Ireland’s first radio beacon in 1931. Though the wildlife might be hard to spot if the fog descends, inclement weather adds to the magic of imagining the life of lighthouse-keepers once stationed here.
From here, detour to the long sandy beach of Barleycove, where the sand dunes were thrown up by a tidal wave that swept Europe after the earthquake in Lisbon in 1755. Then meander to Crookhaven for crab salads in O’Sullivan’s, while Heron’s Cove in Goleen is well worth a taxi from Schull for a meal overlooking the bay.
Though the landscape of this peninsula can’t help but impress, take a drive across the mountain pass to Durrus and onto the Sheep’s Head Peninsula. Seamus Heaney described the area as “water and ground in their extremity” and for Michael Harding it’s “the most beautiful landscape in Ireland”. It would seem a shame to miss it.
Another place that would be a shame to miss is Ballydehob. If you can’t secure a table in Michelin-starred Chestnut, slip into Budds with a predinner drink in Levis. Use it as the perfect stop on your way back from a wilderness retreat sure to re-energise… That is if you don’t have time to island hop on ferry crossings to Sherkin or Cape Clear from Baltimore.