Page 173 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Ireland

C ORK AND KERR Y  171

gentility with its neatly painted
shopfronts and craft shops. On
the coast is the Eccles Hotel, a
haunt of Queen Victoria and
where George Bernard Shaw
supposedly wrote Saint Joan.
Bamboo Park in Glengarriff
is a unique, exotic garden with
30 different species as well
as other tropical plants.

u Mizen Head
Road map A6. Co Cork.
@ to Goleen.
n Town Hall, North St, Skibbereen
(028 21766).
Mizen Head, the most south-
westerly tip of Ireland, has
steep cliffs, often lashed by
storms. In a lighthouse, Mizen
Head Visitors’ Centre is reached
Italianate garden with lily pool and folly on Garnish Island by a bridge. From the car park,
a headland walk takes in views
exotic garden in 1910 by Harold y Bantry Bay of cliffs and Atlantic breakers.
Peto for Annan Bryce, a Belfast Road map A6. Co Cork. The sandy beaches of nearby
businessman. Framed by views @ to Bantry and Glengarriff. n Mar– Barley Cove attract bathers
of Bantry Bay, the gardens are Oct: The Square, Bantry (027 50229). and walkers; to the east is
land scaped with Neo-Classical ∑ bantry.ie Bamboo Park: Tel 027 Crookhaven, a pretty yachting
follies and planted with 63007. ∑ bamboo-park.com harbour. From here, a walk
subtropical flora. The micro- to Brow Head offers views
climate and peaty soil provide Bantry Bay encompasses the of the lighthouse.
the damp, warm conditions resorts of Bantry and Glengarriff. Mizen Head can be reached
needed for these ornamental It is also a spring board for either from Bantry via Durrus
plants to flourish. trips to Mizen Head and the or from the market town of
Exotic shrubberies abound Beara Peninsula. Skibbereen, on the R592, via
especially during the summer. In Bantry nestles beneath the the charming crafts centre of
May and June, there are beautiful hills which run down to the bay. Ballydehob and the village
displays of camellias, azaleas and Just offshore you can see of Schull. Trips to Cape Clear
rhododendrons. There is also a Whiddy Island, the original Island (see p174) leave from
New Zealand fernery, a Japanese home of the White family, who Schull in the summer months.
rock ery, and a rare collection of moved to Bantry House in the
Bonsai trees. A Martello tower, early 18th century. Further E Visitors’ Centre
thought to be the first ever built, along is Bere Island, a British Mizen Head. Tel 028 35115.
crowns the island and among base until World War II. Open Mar–Oct: daily; Nov–mid-Mar:
the follies are a clock tower and Glengarriff, at the head of the Sat & Sun. & 9 7 limited. - =
a Grecian temple. bay, exudes an air of Victorian ∑ mizenhead.net
The centrepiece is a colon-
naded Italianate garden, with a
Classical folly and ornamental lily
pool. Much of its charm resides
in the contrast between the
cultivated lushness of the garden
and the glimpses of wild
seascape and barren mountains
beyond. An added attraction of
the boat trip across to this Gulf
Stream paradise is the chance to
see cavorting seals in Bantry Bay.
t Bantry House
See pp172–3. Rocky cliffs at Mizen Head

170-171_EW_Ireland.indd 171 08/03/17 11:43 am