Mizen Head

Location

County Cork

History

A sparsely populated peninsula of outstanding rugged beauty, Mizen is Ireland's most southerly point and at its lonely ocean swept head stands the Mizen Head Signal Station and Visitor Centre.

Beyond the town of Ballydehob, the Mizen Peninsula stretches its long finger southward through Schull, an attractive little fishing village, popular with sail boats in the summer, and on through the tiny village of Goleen. The road goes past the causeway linked island of Crookhaven a place where you can simply stop the world and get off and around Barley Cove Beach, a long stretch of sheltered sandy bay and the best beach in West Cork . From here the road winds along before stopping at the very edge of Europe, where the Atlantic Ocean crashes onto the dramatic rocks at Mizen Head. The landscape along the way is one of wild desolate beauty and isolated nooks and crannies of craggy rocks, breathtaking sea cliffs and hideaway coves.

At the head are the Visitor Centre and Signal Station, which stands on a dramatic promontory battered by the ocean and linked to the mainland by a solid arched bridge. An award winning maritime heritage museum the Visitor Centre includes displays on sea faring and mankind's relationship with the sea, on sea navigation and sea life. A walk down the 99 steps and across the bridge to the Signal Station brings you to the old Keeper's House, here you can see how the keepers at the station lived and worked from 1909 when it was built up until 1993 when the signal station was automated.

The real magic of Mizen Head is the breathtaking scenery of the landscape itself and of course the knowledge that you are at the very southern tip of Ireland, with the vast swell of the Atlantic sprawled out before you.

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