Eating West Cork: June 2013

Yesterday we hit the road at 9am to try tour as much of the Beara Peninsula in a single day as possible. The bottom of the Peninsula, where Ireland's only cable car operates between the mainland and Dursey Island is about a 3 hour drive from our house so it was going to be a long day out. The car was packed with wellies, rain coats and a huge picnic and we set off.

We arrived at the ruined grounds of Dunboy Castle outside Castletownbere where we spent a good two hours eating and exploring and checked out one of the most interesting relics of the recent economic bust in Ireland right next to the castle ruins, 'Puxley Mansion'. It is a very large house built by local copper mining family in 1800's, was burnt down in 1920 by the IRA but more recently totally refurbished as Ireland's only 6-star Hotel. It has however never opened! There is a very interesting article written about the hotel here 'Castles in the Air'.

We then drove down to the very end of the Peninsula where the road ends and you take a Cable Car over the sea to Dursey Island. It was very windy at this stage and the cable car does not look like the most sophisticated or comfortable method of transport but it is a surprisingly calm crossing that takes about 10 minutes.

After Dursey we headed over Healy Pass via the very bright and colorful town of Allihies (lots of pink and purple paint!) back to Castletownbere, over the Healy Pass down into Kenmare from where we headed home. Long but lovely day out! (380kms!)