Drumlin at Donemark

A trip into Bantry for the weekly shop. Himself had the tough task of coping with Super Valu and I swanned around the rather sparse stalls in the market, selecting cheese and olives. We then decided to do the Béicín loop which starts from the old quay and wanders around the coastline at Donemark - only do-able when the tide is low. We met a very keen twitcher who was eager to inform us about snowy egrets and then scrambled on over the rocks with amazing views out to Whiddy island. We passed a jumble of stones where another old quay had been and admired the ivy clad ruins of an old fish palace where pilchards were once cured. A fine Georgian house and a long avenue, but the track to the Elizabethan fort hiding in the undergrowth was too waterlogged for exploration.

Whiddy island is in the distance here with the mauve hills of the Beara beyond. The bright green lump is a drumlin, one of the many around Bantry Bay. The little specks are floats showing where there are mussel ropes - another speciality of the area. Rumour has it that Noah's grandaughter, Césair, was shipwrecked here with 150 women and three men!! And the Vikings may have landed here many centuries later. All calm today though.