Celebrating Irish Design in West Cork

2015 was the Year of Irish Design. In celebration there were exhibitions, events, talks and programmes all across the country. RTE aired a four part documentary, Designing Ireland, introducing us to the history of design in this country. Hosted by Angela Brady and Sandra O’Connell this fascinating series took us from our roots in vernacular design and use of materials, through the dawn of modern design in Ireland via innovative architecture and fashion designers, to the heady days of the Kilkenny Design Centre and into the digital era where computer-based planning is married to mastery of materials by engineers, architects, fine crafters and designer-makers to produce products that can stand with any in the world.

Alison, Angela and Sandra at the 7 HANDS Exhibition in London, with Alison’s greenwood chairs*

Artists and craft people gravitated towards West Cork throughout the second half of the 20th century for the light, the distance from civilization, the beauty of the countryside, the affordability of land for studios and housing and for the support of a community of like-minded individuals. Alison Ospina, in her book West Cork Inspires, describes this period and profiles many of the practitioners who discovered this unique area, drew inspiration from it and made their home here.

Last summer in Ballydehob the 7 HANDS Group harkened back to this golden era of West Cork Design with a stunning exhibition of contemporary fine craftwork by seven local artists. The exhibition moved on to Dublin and London where it was well received, although I cannot imagine the settings there could rival that of our tiny pristine Haugaard Gallery on the Pier in Ballydehob.

Kieran Higgins is a master woodworker *

The exhibition was supported by a series of artists’ talks and it was quite magical to listen to Brian Lalor talk about the detail and precision of his etching process, compared to Alison Ospina’s approach to her greenwood chair building in which the material reveals the ultimate design to her.

Angela Brady walked us through the making one of her luminous glass creations (those gorgeous beetles!) and Paddy McCormack spoke about the fiery furnace in which his wonderful chess set was forged.

We came away with our own little souvenir – yet more hares for Robert, this time by Etain Hickey.

The 7 HANDS group has larger ambitions. They want to re-establish West Cork’s place in the Irish design and craft pantheon. With this, their first exhibition, they have made an excellent start.

Patrick Connor’s quirky portraits *

The extraordinary intricacy of Brian Lalor’s ‘Liffey with Cranes’*

*A special thank you to Angela Brady for some of the photographs in this post.

Posted on January 3, 2016
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Your Favourite Posts of 2015

Ross Castle, Killarney

At the end of each year we like to look back at our most-read posts and do a re-cap for our readers. Last year you liked what we wrote about islands, nostalgia, festivals, and the beauty of the Mizen Peninsula.

Did you drive past the Woman in White?

Despite all the hours we put into researching topics and sourcing images, this year it was a spur-of-the-moment post done for the sheer fun of it that came the closest we’ve ever come to a viral hit. Yes – that post on the Leap Scarecrows. The little village of Leap went all out and you could just sense the enjoyment that the scarecrow-makers had dreaming up their concoctions.

The One-Armed Michael Davitt

We love writing about history and some of your favourites fell under this heading. Robert wrote about Michael Davitt after a visit to his museum in Mayo. His powerful message of peaceful civil resistance struck home with us both.

Where Agnes grew up: Bridge Street, Skibbereen, 19th Century. National Library Collection

Finola stayed in West Cork, and wrote about the life of Agnes Mary Clerke who grew up in Skibbereen and went on to become a formidable astro-physicist and science writer.

The Elizabethan-era fortified house at Gearhameen, near Durrus

West Cork abounds in reminders of the medieval period. Tower houses and castles stand as ruined sentinels all along the coast. But we also have a type of dwelling known as a fortified house – the largest example is Coppinger’s Court near Rosscarbery – and our post, Trading Up in Tudor Times, set out the main characteristics of these impressive mansions.

Along the Butter Road walk – part of the new Fastnet Trail System

A local group has been hard at work developing a new system of trails in our vicinity and this summer it was successfully launched. The trails use existing boreens, for the most part, and are filled with unexpected delights and wonderful vistas. Robert introduced the new trail system to our readers in his post Closer Encounters – Fastnet Trails.

‘Tis far from induction hobs you were reared

We love to laugh at ourselves in Ireland, and Finola’s post You’re Grand, heavily influenced by the hilarious Tara Flynn and her book of the same name, must have raised some chuckles. Tara has a new book out now, Giving Out Yards, equally hilarious and insightful about us Irish and what makes us tick – or actually, what ticks us off.

Derrynablaha landscape – changed and unchanged

Archaeology is one of our big topics, and this year three posts made the most-read list. Our account of the expedition we undertook with colleagues to Derrynablaha – a wild mountain valley in Kerry full of rock art – was a hit with many readers. You also enjoyed our account of our visit to the Ceide Fields in Mayo, and Finola’s musings about the humble cupmark and its place in the rock art pantheon.

Skibbereen hosted a wildly successful National Digital Week

We enjoyed participating in the first ever Digital Skibbereen event – a wonderfully organised set of experiences designed to showcase how Skibbereen is poised for the digital era.

In the Magic Forest

Our readers love to hear about things to do and places to go in West Cork. Robert wrote about our day in the Magic Forest, a feast for the senses and great fun for the whole family. Earlier in the year, in A Mumuration, he described our outing to Ballyvourney to take part in the ancient rituals associated with the celebration of St Gobnait.

Making the Rounds at Saint Gobnait’s Shrine on the Feast Day

And what about our own favourites, even if they didn’t make it to the most-read list?

The Infant of Prague – in Prague

Robert’s was his post on The Infant of Prague – he was fascinated by the little statues that are so ubiquitous in West Cork houses and was delighted to find the original in Prague and learn about its significance. Our discovery of Oldcourt, with its traditional boatyard and long history was also a highlight.

Old boat at Oldcourt

After dithering for hours, Finola decided that her trio of posts on our West Cork tower houses (When is a Castle?, Tower House Tutorial Part 1 and Tower House Tutorial Part 2) were the most fun to write, because she learned so much and because she got to scramble around old ruins with her camera – possibly her favourite activity in the world.

Dunmanus Castle

How about you, Dear Reader? Did you have a favourite this year?

And don’t forget, especially if you’re relatively new to this blog, you can check out the Navigation Page to see what topics you might like to pursue.

Posted on December 27, 2015December 27, 2015
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Beyond the Mizen: Top 14 West Cork Pics of 2015

We were heading home from Hare Island after a Fit Up Theatre Performance, when this happened

Many of our top Facebook photographs this year were from the Mizen , but not all. You also liked and shared photographs that captured the essence of other parts of West Cork.

Baltimore Bay and Ringarogy Island

I think the Baltimore Bay one was so popular because the colours are SO west Cork. When you get blue sky and clouds, the sea turns this amazing Caribbean blue and the contrast with the green fields and wilder high ground is gorgeous.

Lighthouse Loop, Sheep’s Head

This photograph of our friend Susan Byron of Ireland’s Hidden Gems is one of my favourites this year because of the impression it creates of sheer wildness.

Sparrowhawk

Robin on gorse

Ferdia

Occasionally we get lucky with the local wildlife. Ferdia, the fox, used to be a regular around our place but has forsaken us recently for neighbours with higher quality leftovers.

Bantry House

It’s possible to get good shots of Bantry House in winter, when the trees don’t obscure it from view.

Kilcoe Castle

Kilcoe Castle is such an icon on the landscape. This photograph shows the neighbourly way it interacts with the other houses around it.

Bardic School Loop Walk, Sheep’s Head

This tiny abandoned cottage may have been part of the 17th Century Bardic School near Lake Faranamanagh on the Sheep’s Head. We’re looking across at the Mizen in this shot.

The Beara, from the Sheep’s Head

And here’s the view from the other side of the Sheep’s Head, across to the Beara Peninsula, with the instantly-recognisable bulk of Hungry Hill to the far right.

Priest’s Leap Valley

The long climb up to Priest’s Leap starts near Ballylickey and ends at a high mountain pass that separates Cork and Kerry. The views are spectacular from the top, but this shot of a colourful house and farms in the valley on the way up seemed to express something typical of West Cork.

Farm, Sheep’s Head

This farm appears to be carved out of the mountain land behind it.

Barloge Bay, at the entrance to Lough Hyne

This was taken in November. I love the contrast of the turquoise water with the autumn colours of the bracken-covered hillside.

A final sunset to end this post. This was taken last February from the lay-by overlooking Roaringwater Bay on the N71. The light was extraordinary – a once in a blue moon kind of shot. The mussel beds make the water look like floating ice packs.

A big thanks to Celia Bartlett for helping us improve our photographic skills this year. We loved our workshop with her.

Happy New Year to all our faithful readers!

Posted on December 20, 2015December 20, 2015
11 Comments

Mizen Magic 5: Top 14 Pics of 2015

Crookhaven in low winter sunlight

You love the Mizen! That’s all we can conclude when we look at which of our Facebook photographs resonated most with our readers and followers this year.

Cairn on Dunlough Head, looking east along the Mizen and Dunmanus Bay

We post a couple of photographs each week on our Facebook page and we are always delighted when they are liked and shared. The vast majority of these images are from West Cork, and many are from our own Peninsula, the Mizen.

The tiny quay at Greenmount, outside Ballydehob. You pass this on the Rossbrin Loop Trail

So, as we look back over 2015, here are your top picks from the Mizen Peninsula, beginning with the most liked/shared. Next week, we will post the top West Cork (non-Mizen) Facebook photographs.

Near Dunlough Bay, on the way to Three Castle Head

Not much text to plough through this week. Consider that your Christmas present from us!

Goleen Village looks so colourful and inviting in the summer

There’s nothing we like better than wandering around West Cork with our cameras – it’s an endless feast. Enjoy – and tell us which is your personal favourite!

The famous 12 Arch Bridge at Ballydehob

The Magnificent Mizen!

The Winding Road…the Cappaghglass high road in autumn

We saw these Jacob sheep on the slopes of Mount Corrin

Sun and shadow – the quintessential West Cork lighting conditions

Farmhouses in the shadow of Mount Gabriel

Ballydehob Bay. This one was taken close to the same place as The Winding Road, but facing the opposite direction, towards Foilnamuck

The North Side of the Mizen – so beautiful and so few people

The Three Castles, from the lake. No Mizen post would be complete without at least one view of this iconic place

Posted on December 13, 2015December 13, 2015
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Coomkeen, Summer and Winter

The Coomkeen Loop Walk on the Sheep’s Head is one of the most richly satisfying walks in West Cork. And that’s saying something, in this land of jaw-dropping vistas and absorbing heritage.

The start of the trail in June

We walked it in June with our friends Amanda and Peter and again in November with our friend John. We had extraordinary days on both occasions. While the November day was cloudless, the one in June provided enough scattered cloud to supply that variation in light and shade that lends such atmosphere to the West Cork landscape.

And in November

To reach the start of the Coomkeen trail, drive from Durrus towards Ahakista and turn right at the Church of Ireland (before you get to the pier). Ascend to the top of that road and you will find a parking spot and the clearly marked trailhead. There are various ways you can do this walk. The complete loop is a 7km walk that brings you along the spine of the peninsula before you drop down onto tracks and then the road back up to the parking place. Our own favourite option is to walk until you reach the little lake and then retrace your steps along the ridge. Lough na Fuilla, Lake of Blood, is so called, the story goes, because thirst-crazed cattle found it dry and attacked each other in their frenzy.

Either way is fairly easy, although the complete loop presents a long steep climb back to the starting point. As with all Sheep’s Head walks, be prepared for any weather, wear good boots, bring a camera and leave the dog at home. If you want more information, consult the section on the Durrus Trailhead in Walking the Sheep’s Head Way.

Winter fields on Bantry Bay

Perhaps you think that it sounds fine to go for a mountain hike in June – but November? Yes, it was a little cooler and a lot windier, but the November hike was just as spectacular as the June one had been. Most striking of course, is the change in colour.

In summer the foxgloves are everywhere

Because this is a ridge walk, the views are immense. To the north is Bantry Bay and Whiddy Island with its huge oil tanks. Beyond that are the mountains of the Beara, looking as wild and remote as, in fact, they are. To the south is Dunmanus Bay and the Mizen Peninsula.

The Summit

Amanda and Peter were able to show us an enormous standing stone on our June trip, although we missed it in November.

But we did visit the same ruin of a small farmhouse on the north side of the ridge. Incredible to think that someone eked out a living so high up. Although only a few broken down walls remain, the poignancy of the site comes from what was once a garden by the house, with thorn trees still bravely clinging on.

Further on are the remains of booleys – small huts used by the young people sent to mind the cattle on the high ground during the summer. Perhaps the little farmhouse was part of that endeavour.

Robert and John inspect the little ruined farmhouse

Running along the ridge and crisscrossing the mountain are the remains of old stone walls. Impossible to tell how long ago they may have been first built, or how recently they functioned to separate pastures.

In November the dominant colours are the blond of the grasses (called fionán, pronounced fyuh-nawn) and the amber, brown and honey tones of the bracken and heather, interspersed with the greenery of gorse and pasture. Although visually stunning, the predominance of the fionán (properly called Purple Moor Grass) and bracken have a less positive underlying meaning. They take hold where the hillside has been set on fire time and again. The fires that we often see here are supposedly to control the gorse and increase grazing for sheep, but in fact according to Birdwatch Ireland, repeat burning “has led to a loss of cover (protection) for Red Grouse…depletes moorland fauna, and can lead to soil acidification, leaching and thus soil degradation.”

In summer, it’s all green but the wild flowers provide bursts of colour.

Bog cotton

sundews

wild orchid

In November, the only wild colour to be found came from a yellow brain fungus on a dead gorse trunk. Yes, it’s really called that, and is normally yellow but darkens after dry weather. It’s not feeding on the gorse, apparently, but on other fungus that is feeding on the wood. Charming.

Do the walk, any time of year. Then show the photos to your friends and watch them make plans for a trip to West Cork. Or should we just keep this our secret?

Posted on December 13, 2015December 13, 2015
5 Comments

Atlantic Winter

When St Brendan of Clonfert set out to discover America in 512 he and his fellow monks had to face the enormity of the Atlantic Ocean in tiny boats built out of wood and oxhides, sealed with animal fat. Up here in Nead an Iolair our view out to the islands of Roaringwater Bay and beyond is dominated by that same ocean and – sometimes – we feel just as small. This year the winter gales have started early, and spates of fierce westerlies have been throwing the Atlantic straight at our windows. The tiles rattle alarmingly while we are tucked up in bed at night. At these times I think of the Saint and what he had to face. But, like Brendan, we always survive the storms, and often wake up in the morning to a calm, clear day – except that you can hear the constant ‘roaring’ of the open sea out over the bay.

On their way to the New World – Saint Brendan and his companions take advantage of a passing Atlantic denizen to celebrate Mass…

The Atlantic has shaped Ireland. The sea is omnipresent: poets have written about it, storytellers have woven tales around it, and composers have tried to capture its spirit in music. Here’s a small section from the impressive ‘Brendan Voyage’ written by Shaun Davey for orchestra and Uillinn pipes – it’s the haunting second movement, played by Liam O’Flynn with the Irish National Youth Orchestra, at a performance in Cork City Hall. It makes me think of the wonderful sunrise on that calm day after the storm…

Brendan Voyage

Our own Atlantic: telescopic view of a storm battering Long Island, taken from our garden at Nead an Iolair (top), Brow Head, near Crookhaven (centre), and the impressive land and seascape at Mizen Head – Ireland’s most south-westerly point (lower picture). At the head of this page you can see the huge rollers that come into Dingle Bay, Co Kerry

Dogger, Rockall, Malin, Irish Sea:
Green, swift upsurges, North Atlantic flux
Conjured by that strong gale-warning voice,
Collapse into a sibilant penumbra.
Midnight and closedown. Sirens of the tundra,
Of eel-road, seal-road, keel-road, whale-road, raise
Their wind-compounded keen behind the baize
And drive the trawlers to the lee of Wicklow.
L’Etoile, Le Guillemot, La Belle Hélène
Nursed their bright names this morning in the bay
That toiled like mortar. It was marvellous
And actual, I said out loud, “A haven,”
The word deepening, clearing, like the sky
Elsewhere on Minches, Cromarty, The Faroes.

Glanmore Sonnets VII, taken from Field Work by Seamus Heaney, published by Faber and Faber Ltd

Seamus Heaney was deeply affected by the seascape of his native Ireland. Anyone who works on or beside the sea is aware of the resonant names from the Shipping Forecasts, and the poet has used those names here to introduce his word-picture of the elemental Atlantic.

Atlantic contrasts from Mizen to Malin: near Malin Head – Ireland’s most northerly point (top), off the Beara (centre) and a beach in Donegal (lower)

A later traveller over the Atlantic waters was Chistopher Columbus in the 15th century. On the way he looked out for St Brendan’s Isle, a spectral island situated in the North Atlantic somewhere off the coast of Africa. It appeared on numerous maps in Columbus’ time, often referred to as La isla de Samborombón. The first mention of the island was in the ninth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), from whence it became firmly implanted into Irish mythology. St Brendan took a little party of monks to the island to say Mass: when they returned after a few days to the rest of the flotilla, they were told that they had been away for a year! The phantom island was seen on and off by mariners for years until in 1723 a priest performed the rite of exorcism towards it during one of its apparitions behind low cloud… You can see St Brendan’s Isle for yourselves, above the wonderful giant fish in the second picture down.

Dingle peninsula (top), and Coast Road in Donegal (lower)

I was pleased to find this Irish Times video made by Peter Cox when he was fundraising for his book Atlantic Light: spectacular photographs of the coastline on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. The excellent aerial views in this film are all taken by a drone… Look out for places you will have seen in our blogs!

atlantic video

We are privileged that the Atlantic Ocean is the abiding but ever-changing feature in our daily lives. It must affect us in unknown ways: I do know that, wherever I go in this world, I will – like Saint Brendan – always be drawn back here to our wonderful safe haven…

Alison, Angela and Sandra at the 7 HANDS Exhibition in London, with Alison’s greenwood chairs*

Kieran Higgins is a master woodworker *

Patrick Connor’s quirky portraits *

The extraordinary intricacy of Brian Lalor’s ‘Liffey with Cranes’*

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On their way to the New World – Saint Brendan and his companions take advantage of a passing Atlantic denizen to celebrate Mass…

Glanmore Sonnets VII, taken from Field Work by Seamus Heaney, published by Faber and Faber Ltd

Atlantic contrasts from Mizen to Malin: near Malin Head – Ireland’s most northerly point (top), off the Beara (centre) and a beach in Donegal (lower)

Dingle peninsula (top), and Coast Road in Donegal (lower)

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