Anywhere interesting in West Cork?

SeamusG97

Hi All, Thinking of spending next weekend in west cork along the coast - anywhere south west of Roscarberry. I used to know it well once but haven't been there in decades. Any suggestions for places to go, places to park for two adults, two kids, two dogs?
Thanks, Seamus

tonyfillony

I would recommend Barleycove past Schull , beautiful beach on a sunny day and the hotel does nice food as well and has friendly staff.

Also if you want to go really far west I would recommend the Beara peninsula , beautiful scenery. Allihies has a nice beach as well and there is also a cable car across to Dursey Island

ValerieR

http://www.mizenhead.ie/

Mizenhead Lighthouse - fantastic place to visit !

Enjoy !

Camdec

ValerieR wrote: »

http://www.mizenhead.ie/

Mizenhead Lighthouse - fantastic place to visit !

Enjoy !

Can you park overnight at/near Mizen with a camper?;)

moodrater

While you're around roscarberry if you've ever been in castlefreke ruins you should go and see what they've done with the place its nuts.

Our first stop on that route would be glandore for lunch you can sit outside and have lunch overlooking the harbour and the kids can play on the otherside of the wall. Nice for swimming too if theres not too many boats. Its better to drive on to leap and go left and come in from the union hall side as its very tight.

If glandore is too busy castletowshend is great for food in mary annes you need to book though.

Further on lough hyne is great for swimming, has a fantastic walk up to the top of the hill gods country in good weather. If you're near the change in tide its worth hiking up the left side of lough hyne to dykes cut to see the tidal swell.

You can rent a dinghy in roaring water bay, great fun sailing there.

We take the boat to garinish nearly every year from glengarriff, the gardens are fantastic even if like me you're not into that sort of thind, its a great break from driving.

The kids love to see the seals. The hungry hill campsite near glengarriff is great cause the pub is right there so you can have a few jars.

If you go as far as schull the boat trip to clear island is a grand way to pass a few hours although the journey is much better than the destination :_p

Barleycove still my favourite beach in ireland is worth a visit used to spend weeks here every year. The beach at the campsite isn't barleycove (which is over the hill) its called the cockle beach and is great for snorkling there a nice walk up from there to the headland and crookhaven is a great spot for lunch if its not too busy.

If you're heading out beara direction have a look at dunboy the ruins of beara fort are there, super fishing, snorkeling and swimming and that bizarre failed hotel is a sight to behold.

If you've made it that far you might as well head on out to allihies, stop at dzogchen beara on the way for some chai to break the journey and after dzogchen beara there are lovely sea arches a short walk off the road to the left, ask for directions.

Allihies has some fantastic walking and ruined copper mines, good fishing here too and the pubs are great.

SeamusG97

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions. Given the weather we are having we won't get there there this weekend I think. I can see livestock lining up in pairs next to the campervan thinking it is Noah's ark.....

moodrater

SeamusG97 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions. Given the weather we are having we won't get there there this weekend I think. I can see livestock lining up in pairs next to the campervan thinking it is Noah's ark.....

You should look at windfinder.de or windguru.cz for the forecast its generally spot on. Bad weather was due to be gone friday evening in the south west. Was down in Baltimore saturday, blazing sunshine, no wind, no rain calm sea. Out for a few pints on sherkin island and a game of table tennis at the jolly roger. Pals were in snorkeling sunday morning, then we went to lough hyne and hiked up to the top to sweat off a few pints. Couldn't have been better.