Mizen Head and Drombeg

Well, since we went to Ireland’s most northerly point, it seemed logical to go to Ireland’s most southerly point. It is also home to a signal station and a bridge over a very dramatic chasm. So, we packed a lunch and left in good time to head for Mizen Head, a 3-hr drive along rural roads (translation 4 hours).  As we drove up and up, further into the clouds, I wondered if we would see anything at all when we got there.
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The road took us through some beautiful countryside and for some time I was struck by the lack of animals. There were the recognizable signs of logging, but no sheep, no cattle, no bales, which made me wonder what they do with the land there. I still don’t know. As we travelled further south, it also became a Gaeltacht district, meaning the Irish language is the predominant language and English doesn’t appear on the signage or buildings. While people speak English with you if you start a conversation, the language you hear in the street and from the kids playing together is Irish.  Eventually, we began to see the apparent free-range sheep all over the hillsides again. 

We arrived at Mizen Head just shy of noon. The visitor centre is full of information about the tides, the geology, and the history of the peninsula. We walked along the paths, following all the ones we found to the top of several viewpoints. Though the clouds were very low, my tongue-in-cheek facebook post about how it was completely fogged in was not the case. There were still some striking views to be seen. We reached the Mizen Head bridge across the chasm. Originally constructed in 1909, the original bridge was finally replaced with a new one in 2010, due to safety issues.
Mizen Head was built in 1909 as a fog signal station to warn ships of the treacherous, rocky coastline. Walking the path across the bridge and over to the edge of the peninsula, I was fascinated with the tortured rock.  Layers were vertical and horizontal and folded over in the same cliff face. It is hard to imagine the cataclysmic events that could create such dramatic structures.

This was the location of the first radio beacon in Ireland and was home to one of Marconi’s stations. The old station house is a delightful surprise! Turned into a tourist centre, you can explore Marconi’s setup for signal transmissions. Further along in other buildings is a display of what would have been the lighthouse keeper’s living areas. There was also a series of remarkable paintings and displays of Ireland’s flora and fauna, accompanied by corresponding boards identifying the plants and animals found in the paintings. I could have spent a lot more time going through them, but it was getting busier with people, so we moved on.

Heading back towards the visitor centre, we took a steep path down another rock face, hoping to see the sea arch at the bottom of the trail. Though shrouded in fog, there it was, along with a rocky beach scene and birds who seemed not to feel the windswept coastline as they perched on the edge of rocks, scanning the ocean for goodies. Mizen Head is a great place to see all kinds of birds and if you’re there at the right time, whales, seals, and a variety of other marine life.

I wanted to see the Drombeg Stone Circle, so off we went towards Cork, the stone circle being more or less on the way.  There are 17 stones in the Drombeg circle and it has been dated to somewhere between 153BC and 127AD. The locals call it the Druid’s Alter and excavation has found an urn with cremated remains in the centre of the circle. We were there just after solstice and the alter was strewn with flowers and offerings from ribbons to coins on the altar stone.  As with other stone circles, this one has an entrance stone and altar stone and is aligned to be lit by the winter solstice. The view of the surrounding landscape is stunning. 

This site also boasts other prehistoric structures. A fulacht fiadh (cooking house) connected to a trough and a well. Enclosed by a low stone bank, this could be used for heating water and cooking food in it. Experiments demonstrated that 318 litres of water could be brought to boil in 18 minutes and would stay hot for 3 hours! Of course, it may also have been used to heat water for bathing, dying cloth, or brewing ale.  The other structure is the remains of two conjoined huts, circular in shape and connected to the cooking hut. The ingenuity of these people was fascinating!

We intended to visit Blarney Castle this day and perhaps the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, but that desire was swiftly quenched by the clog of traffic around Cork. For me, Blarney Castle was just another castle. The advertised attraction, of course, is to kiss the Blarney Stone and refill your gift of gab. Since I have that in spades already, I figured there was no need to make myself insufferable by kissing the  stone. Not to mention, I had no wipes with me and the idea of kissing a stone kissed and touched by a million others....gross. So once we got through the perimeter traffic, we made a beeline for home.

​A long day (again), but so worth it (again).