Ireland: Bantry and the Sheep's Head Peninsula

Trip Date: August 4, 2011

After seeing so much in one day, we all decided it would be best to take a day to relax. Still, no one really slept in. Ryan, Rob, my Dad, and Britta went golfing at an Irish Links course in Glengarrif and dropped me off in Bantry on their way. The past few days I was desperately trying to arrange a day to visit Skellig Mikael, a monastery 8 miles out to sea on top of a huge rock in the ocean, which to get to you must boat out there and then climb up more than 600 steps! Just as cool, the island is home to a puffin colony and the next island over has one of the world's largest gannet colonies. The only problem was that it was a good two hour drive from Bantry and there was the possibility that the weather would be so rough the boats wouldn't even go out there. But I tried calling all of the different boat companies that had licenses to get to the Skelligs. None had open reservations except for days that the weather was supposed to be bad anyway. I very reluctantly had to shelve that idea until next time...

I was then able to walk around Bantry for a little bit. It's a great little town, especially because it's not really on any tourist's map. Bantry sits at the head of a very long and deep inlet which allows ocean vessels to come in, escaping the rough seas. And the town was famous for a time for Irish tourists who took a cruise boat from Cork to Bantry and then took a train home. It's history is deeply seated in agriculture and fishing, so much that French and Spanish fishing boats would come to the harbor and pay taxes and dues to the O'Sullivan Clan. It is still retains that small town charm with a fleet of fishing boats. But it has a number of great pubs and little restaurants and shops centered around the stone town square (a filled in marsh). Lizzie and Sarah met me downtown around noon and we walked on up to a great natural food market and cafe called, Organico, to use their free wi-fi for an hour or so.

Central town square with a statue of St. Brendan, the Navigator (thanks Wikipedia!)

Downtown Bantry

Many of the boats in Ireland had two keels, I noticed. At first I thought they were for better stability out on the ocean, but now I get it! They're used to keep boats upright when the tide goes out!

Lizzie and Me in the town square, but I forgot to open my eyes...

The supermarket has no real parking lot, so people just cart their groceries back to their cars and leave them wherever they could find a place to park. So this poor guy (in the center) has to go all over town to collect the shopping carts!

On our way back to Agma, Lizzie and Sarah and I stopped at the Bantry House, a very fancy hotel that used to be a private home. Nowadays they have traditional craft markets on the grounds and were hosting an Irish Music Festival the week after we left. It's a beautiful estate, allowed to fall into a "controlled disrepair" in that grass is allowed to grow out of the steps and the old guest carriage house is overgrown in the gardens. It's no Versailles, but it's far from being rubbly ruin either. Climb up the steps behind the house to get great views of Bantry Bay (which I wasn't able to get this time around, but did a few days later)!

Front of the Bantry House from their front yard!

Statue in the entry-way roundabout

Guest carriage house in the gardens

View of the Bantry Cemetery from the front lawn of the Bantry House

We drove back to Agma and waited for everyone else to return from golfing. After a while, Lizzie, Rob, Britta, Carl and my Dad decided to back into Bantry to spend some time there and left Ryan, Sarah and I playing cards for a few hours. But then we decided to go do something and Ryan really wanted to go hiking.

A very cool thing about all of the westward-jutting peninsulas of Ireland's southwest coast is that each peninsula has its own "way," a hiking path that typically runs down the center of the peninsula to the end. We were staying on the Sheep's Head Peninsula and the Goat's Path is the hiking trail which runs its length. The peninsula is nearly 30 miles long and there was no way we were going to be able to do much of that in one night, so we drove out toward the end a ways and found a hiking path which led us through some farm fields and up a hill. It wasn't looking like the trail we were on was going to get to the ridge line, so we cut over across deep grassy ledges. Ireland is known for being wet and green, and we soon found out that once the rain falls, it collects in these troughs on top of the ledges allowing an abundance of plants to grow. It was beautifully rugged, but also challenging at times because you couldn't see where you were stepping some of the time and you would end up with your shoes completely submerged under cold water. It was not the hardest hiking I've ever done, but because of the constant wetness and risk of rolling your ankle, it was some of the most frustrating. Once we got to the ridgeline, however, the going was much easier and we eventually made it up to the cairn and witnessed a gorgeous sunset, albeit through rip-roaring winds!

Bantry Bay from up on the Sheep's Head Peninsula

Sarah looking out over Bantry Bay

Sheep's Head Peninsula

Sheep's Head Peninsula

Balancing across some of the rocks took real skill so as not to fall into the water or off the rock!

Me, Sarah, and Ryan

Ryan on the Sheep's Head Peninsula cairn

Me on the cairn

Looking south over Dunmanus Bay to the Mizen Peninsula

Sarah's turn on the cairn!

Almost ghastly landscape looking north to the Beara Peninsula

The hikers!

Sun setting over the Beara Peninsula

Looking up Bantry Bay

 

Gorse

 

 

The two rams is the logo for the Goat's Path Way

Ruins along the road in the sunlight.

We got back to Agma and found everyone else waiting for us and we ended up drinking some beers and playing cards for the rest of the night. All in all, it was a good, relaxing day, but I was itching to see more of Ireland!