Talkie walkies

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 14 years ago

Talkie walkies

Land of stories ... Cape Clear.

Land of stories ... Cape Clear.Credit: Richard Mills/Lonely Planet

Richard Tulloch hears a hundred Irish stories as he strolls along the West Cork coastline.

The story goes that a blind farmer was offered a patch of suspiciously cheap land here in West Cork. "Does it have lots of thistles?" he asked warily. No thistles at all, he was assured. "Lots of nettles?" Not a single nettle, was the answer. "Then keep it yourself," growled the farmer, "'Tis mighty poor land that won't grow thistles and nettles!"

Farming this windswept corner of Ireland has always been mighty tough but it's hard to imagine a more beautiful place for walking and during the West Cork Walking Festival we hear the talking too. Ireland is a land of stories, and raconteurs like Gerald O'Flynn tell us the tales, often funny, more often tragic, that are etched into this landscape.

The islands and peninsulas of West Cork jut into the Atlantic swell. They're a paradise for walkers and birdwatchers and are not yet swamped by tourists. "They call Sheep's Head the undiscovered peninsula," James O'Mahony, a local farmer-turned-track-maker, tells me but it may not remain undiscovered for long.

The 100-kilometre Sheep's Head Way walk James and his co-workers have set up has just won the prestigious European Destination of Excellence award.

It's a worthy winner. Sheep's Head is a rocky finger of land with Caher and Rosskerrig mountains as its knobbly knuckles. Gulls shriek and swirl above the beaches, gannets nest in crevices in rugged cliffs and whales, dolphins and seals are often seen in the bays below. Except for a small group of enterprising Germans who've found their way over from Nuremberg ("We are coming here three times, it is so beautiful!"), I have it all to myself.

But when the West Cork Walking Festival officially starts, I have plenty of company. At Casey's Hotel above colourful Baltimore village on the evocatively-named Roaring Water Bay, people are slipping into waterproofs and strapping on knee-braces, as organiser Rianne leads stretching exercises.

These walking festivals are held around Ireland throughout the year. They're great community events, organised by locals but open to all, and are reasonably priced. Walks range from comfortable ambles to six-hour cross-country adventures, with guides providing stories along the way and convivial company guaranteed.

Rianne hands our limbered-up bodies over to local historian Gerald for a sunset tour of Baltimore. As we walk, Gerald spins yarns of fishermen and sailors, priests and pirates, and the feuding McCarthy and O'Driscoll families.

Advertisement

Most remarkable is the tale of a Dutch-Algerian pirate who in 1631 sacked Baltimore and sold 160 inhabitants into slavery in the Middle East. Eventually a new village was founded, this time up the shallow river in Skibbereen, where pirate ships couldn't follow.

"Can you pilot me up the river to Skibbereen?" the visitor asked the local sailor. "Indeed I can.""Ah, you know where the rocks are?""I do not," replies the sailor, "but I do know where the rocks ain't!"

Skibbereen was the epicentre of the disastrous 1845-50 famine. In the cemetery, under a plot the size of a tennis court, more than 9000 people lie in a mass grave with a poignant headstone inscription: "Oh God! That bread should be so dear and human flesh so cheap." There was food enough in West Cork then but most couldn't afford it and even Baltimore fishing rights were savagely controlled.

Next morning I join the Dawn Chorus Walk, an easy (except for starting at dawn) hour's stroll through the lovely gardens and woodlands of Inish Beg Estate. Proud owners Paul and Georgie show us where otters play in the estuary. Then it's off to the Shibin Inn to chat to fellow walkers over a full Irish breakfast of eggs, black pudding and massive hot raisin scones. And I'm sorry, Grandma, your scones were the best but these are ... oh, yes thanks, a third one please I'll walk it off later.

A ferry takes 30 energetic hikers and guilty scone-eaters out to Cape Clear Island, the most southerly point of Ireland. Our guide, Seamus, leads us on a stiff climb up through the heather to where we can look across cliffs to the distant Fastnet Lighthouse. Cape Clear was for a long time an important communication centre as ships from the New World dropped off their messages. It was from Cape Clear that the first news of the American Civil War and of Lincoln's assassination reached Europe.

We tramp on across farmland only accessible by special arrangement with the walking festival. "Say hello to Ed as you pass his door," says Seamus. "He may have some goat ice-cream for sale." And indeed at Cleire Goat Farm there's Ed, grey-bearded and blind, offering concoctions that happily taste more like ice-cream than goat.

As we scoop it up with plastic spoons, Ed unexpectedly bursts into full-throated song. For an unforgettable few minutes he sings us a story of the famine and the tenant farmer's wife who got the better of the cruel landlord. Pure, spontaneous, unpretentious magic!

By the end of the weekend I've become pally with members of the Mallow Walking Club, with Tim and Wendy from the holiday cottage up the road, Valerie from Brittany, Dominik from Munich, and Eric and Madonna from Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

As they say, there are no strangers in Ireland, only friends you haven't met yet.

The writer was a guest of Tourism Ireland and flew courtesy of Aer Lingus.

TRIP NOTES

GETTING THERE

Qantas flies from Sydney to London from $2033 return. Aer Lingus flies from London to Cork for £89 ($185) return. Private transport is the best way to reach Sheep's Head and Baltimore. Both are about 100 kilometres from Cork.

STAYING THERE

On Sheep's Head, Hillcrest Farm B&B has doubles from €70. See ahakista.com. Casey's Hotel, Baltimore, offers B&B from €120 a double. See caseysofbaltimore.com. For other accommodation options, see westcork.ie.

WALKING THERE

For a list of Irish walking festivals, including West Cork in May, Mourne in June, Castlebar in July, Donegal in September and Waterford in October, see discoverireland.com/us/ireland-things-to-see-and-do/activities/walking. Guided walks during the West Cork festival cost from €10-€22.50, including ferry fares. See westcork.ie and discoverireland.com.au.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading