Mizen Head's Spectacular In All Kinds Of Weather
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| Always worth a look! |
Fair weather or foul, or even foggy (as it was last Wednesday), spectacular Mizen Head is a must visit if you’re in the West Cork area.
As with everywhere else, there are Covid19 restrictions in operation and you must wear a mask to gain entry to the indoor areas including exhibition rooms, café (takeout only) and so on. Because of Covid, the seasonal Mizen opening had been delayed and indeed their first day had been the one before our visit. In any case, they had it well organised (sanitisers, distance markings etc) and everything onsite went very well indeed.
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| Masked on Mizen |
Speaking of masks, some visitors, who had decided against the full visit, asked to use the toilet. Two of a group near us had just other one mask between them. So the young lady went first, came out and handed the mask to her partner who then took his turn!
When we arrived it was quite foggy and that had put some people off. But we paid the reasonable fee and enjoyed our visit. We were feeling a little hungry after the two and a half hour drive* from the city. So we took a look at the pretty extensive menu outside and settled on a couple of well made and decently priced toasties.
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| Dunlough Bay |
That set us up nicely to take on the fenced paths (with helpful hand-rails). The one up to the viewing point over rocky Dunlough Bay is the most worthwhile. Another, the first one really, and a much shorter one, gives you a fine view from above over the footbridge.
Then, carry on to the lighthouse itself over the bridge that was opened in 1993. On the way back, be sure and take the short path down towards a viewing point just below the bridge level. Here we saw a couple of seals frolicking in the water below. The final path for us was the longest, down to the rocks, with a view of the arch in the rocks and also quite a view back to the rocky point where the lighthouse stands. Tough enough coming back up!
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| Toormore |
The fog had thinned out quite a bit as we departed and indeed a few minutes later we were passing above the lovely Barleycove beach and here the sun was blazing down and the beach looked very impressive from our viewing point. Car parks were more or less full and there were quite a few people on the sand. It is a large beach though.
Next stop was at the bay of Toormore. We have often seen its famous Altar Wedge Tomb (signposted) but the bay itself is an attractive one with very pleasing views when the sun is out. A notice here says people may have been worshipping in this place some 4,000 years ago. Good spot for a picnic, not there’s any table!
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| Go to the last on the left! |
On then to Schull. We had intended making a short stop here but the noted holiday village was packed. I made a couple of attempts to find a parking place before deciding to motor on. We were heading for the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery, our base for the night. Having checked in, we took a walk by the water, watching the many different seabirds feeding here, before going back for an “excellent” feed ourselves in the hotel’s restaurant. More on that in a later post.
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| Barleycove beach on the way back from Mizen |
* Should have been shorter than the eventual 2.5 hours but a few things conspired against us. We’ve been here at Mizen a few times and never had a problem. But our current Sat-Nav didn’t recognise the name, the fog didn’t help, and crucially the final sign to go left was missing. We went straight on there and ended up in the car park for Three Castles Head (another excellent visit, by the way). On the way back, we found the Mizen Head sign, well rusted, in the briars, the pole itself, with Goleen on top, was standing and in good condition!
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| The sign for Mizen in the briars. Didn't see it in the fog earlier on |
