Mizen Magic Miscellany

We have almost 30 posts titled Mizen Magic and over the next few weeks I want to highlight some of them – from castles to beaches, from archaeology to geology, from walks to folklore – the Mizen Peninsula is endlessly fascinating and scenic. Lets start with some archaeology.

Dunbeacon is on the North side of the Peninsula, and home to both a stone circle and a vestigial O’Mahony castle. In Mizen Magic 7: Dunbeacon – History, Prehistory and Questions of Access
we explored the trade off when access is provided to an ancient monument, but that aspect also severely impacts on the monument itself. The photo above is the before, while that below is the after.

There isn’t much left of the O’Mahony Castle in Dunbeacon, but what a location!

In Mizen Magic 14: Lissagriffin, we explored a little known townland close to Barley Cover. The ruined church may be far older than we think and there are hints in the landscape of long, long occupation.

One of my favourite posts was the one we called Mizen Magic 18: The Prehistoric Landscape of Arduslough.

Of this area I said There are parts of West Cork that seem to hold within them all the memories and markers of eons. There are four wedge tombs, a lake with an imprisoned demon of the pagan times, cupmarked stones, a standing stone and a possible ogham stone we could not locate. I am convinced that one of the wedge tombs may be an incorrectly identified passage grave.