Beaches and Waterfront

Ballybrenagan – Beach

My absolute favourite beach for walking is this one.

Suitable for everyone at any season. For walkers, for swimmers, for kids and dogs. In summer barefoot, rest of the year with suitable shoes.

A dream of a beach! It’s sooooo relaxing here.

Proper shoes are an essential asset

particularily out of the season

stoney at the cliffs, but a sandy beach

Directions

From Dunkettle Rdabout take the N25 towards East Cork and leave at Exit 3 on Midleton Rdabout (Direction to Whitegate). Follow the the R630. You will pass Saleen and a few km after passing by this village there’s an exit to R631 and Cloyne. Don’t turn into this but go straight on. However, the next option to leave the R630 to the left is yours. It’s a small, long road. Go straight on the main road until a Stop Sign. Go straight on and turn right at the next tiny street. Follow until the parking area which is at:

GPS: 51°48′16″ N  8°8′7″ W

If you want to join me for a walk or hike, please click here for guided walks in Co. Cork

Inchydoney Island

Overview over the walk

First things first:

As it is a beach walk, please take care of the following:

  1. Low tide isn’t only a recommendation here, because some parts of the walk might be flooded and in worst case impossible to be used. Though please have a look at the tides before you start to go there. A nice app that works for me perfectly fine is the app:
    for iOS: “Tide Times : “republic of ireland”
    for Android: “Tides Near Me”
  2. Where’s the wind coming from? The easier task is to have the wind in your back. Most of the times the wind is coming from the West. When you start at the beginning with the path to the right, you’ll have the wind in your back.
    As it is a circular walk you can decide, if you go around clockwise or anti-clockwise.
  3. On warm days it might be an unnecessary question if you want to put off your shoes and walk through parts of remaining mud, but on other days it might be essential. That’s why good walking shoes is the best insurance on this walk.
  4. There are several carparks available, but when it is busy this one is the best to avoid the crowds.

And now let’s go! It’s time to come out of the house after the new virus kept us inside for a long time.

Parking area left, small house right

When I parked the car, I was not sure which direction I should start with. But as I’m a 150% right hander, I intuitively went to the right. That it was the right decision, I found out later on that walk.

It starts comfortable on an old tiny road, which is also the approach to the Island House and Gardens.

You pass it by and walk up the hill. Once up the hill you have already a wonderful view to the beach.

A signpost to the beach

It isn’t that steep, but when you feel it is too steep for you, only slow down your pace. Once up the hill you have already a wonderful view to the beach.

Hold on to the right until you meet the road. Cross the road and walk to the left now until the road splits up on the Y-junction. Follow the street right down to the parking area and through the dunes to the beach.

The beach area is divided in 2 areas:
One in front of the hotel and one behind the hotel, separated by the cliff, but also connected by a few stairs.

Spend as much time on the beach as you want. It is one of the nicest beaches in County Cork or return another time only for the beach as such.

It’s not only beach

Stairs from beach to hotel car park

At the end of the first beach part take one of the stairs up, cross the parking area and take one of the walks down to the 2nd part of the beach.

Inchydoney beach

Before you go on, check the tide times. The water can return back faster than expected!

When you feel save to go on enjoy this beautiful beach walk. After the next corner the beach changes a bit and can be a bit challenging . It’s not everywhere simple sand. And it’s not always a stable underground.

Sometimes you can sink into the sand deeper than expected and also the muddy parts aren’t only muddy on the surface.

Birds, too, sink sometimes deeper

The other part of the beach

The last part of the beach walk

After 5 km you end up at the road again and now you have only 100m over the bridge to your car.

Most probably you first have to clean your shoes 🙂

Dirty shoes included

Directions

From Cork City take the N40 towards West Cork and leave at Exit 3 (Direction to Skibbereen and Bandon). Follow the the N71 until Clonakilty. It’s about 60 km or pretty much an hour to go.

Once arrived in Clonakilty take the 2nd exit on the first Rdabout to stay on the N71 and take on the 2nd Rdabout the 2nd exit to leave. Pass by the Railway Museum and follow the street. Take care the harbour is always on your left side. When the main street turns to the right, follow the tiny street to go straight on.

GPS: 51°36′14″ N  8°52′19″ W

If you want to join me for a walk or hike, please click here for guided walks in Co. Cork

Meelmane – Barry’s Cove – Butlerstown, Co. Cork

Well, last time I introduced you to the second part of the Seven Heads Walk. And because it was so relaxing and breathtaking, I thought we should do a few more sections, because the area is really something special. And it is summer time. Time to explore County Cork.

This time we start in Meelmane, not far from the place where we turned around last week. A good hint: It might be good to take your bathing clothes with you. And before I forget to mention, walking shoes are on this trail a huge advantage and highly recommended.

The total length of this walk is about 6 km one way and we had our second car parked in Butlerstown.

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Courtmacsherry – Wood Point – Beamish Cove, Co. Cork

As the summer is still ongoing, let’s explore a few nice areas in the western part of County Cork. The distances to go are a bit longer, but be surprised how beautiful County Cork is.

The Seven Heads Walk is well known and the walk along the cliffs is breathtaking. Seven Heads Walk has a total length of 42.5 km and can be divided into several sections. This makes it easy for those who can’t or don’t want to walk long distances.

Basically Seven Heads Walk starts in Timoleague and from here you can walk to Courtmacsherry and its wonderful beaches. Everybody knows that I’m not a big friend of tarred surfaces and walking along the street.

That’s why we started with the 2nd section.

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The Gearagh, Lee Valley, Co. Cork

Have you ever been to Macroom? A busy market town with the beautiful remainings of Macroom Castle. But the area around of Macroom is amazing. Today I want to show you something special. According to discoverycork.ie it is a place which remains of the only ancient post glacial alluvial forest in Western Europe: The Gearagh next to Macroom. The Gearagh is a haven of tranquillity and an area for everyone who loves birds, butterflies and flowers. The Irish Times calls it the Everglades without the crocodiles.

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Garretstown Beach, Co.Cork

Finally we have a few nice days you can call “warm”. I deliberately set the word between quotation marks. I call days warm, from that moment on, where I’m able to walk with only one layer of dressing and not 3 or 4. To be honest, I’m not a benchmark for temperatures or feelings like cold or warm. Very rarely it’s too warm for me.

So let’s go out as long as the weather is so inviting.

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Knockadoon, Barry-Coves-Way, Co.Cork

Well, we can’t complain about the last days, can we? It was during the days only partly cloudy or really sunny, not longer that cold and not to windy. And last Sunday was a highlight. I had to got for a walk though. On my list since March was Barry-Coves-Way in Knockadoon. Knockadoon? Never heard before? Never have been before? Time to change that!

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Youghal beach walk, Co. Cork

By calender it’s already spring and so let’s go today to the most south eastern part of County Cork. To Youghal. Youghal calls wonderful beaches its own, which can be divided into 2 sections or better in 3? And Youghal has its own website for more information about swimming at Youghal beaches.

Overall it is a bit more than 5 km long beach and excellently designed for walking. To and back is 10 km. Not the shortest walk and good to know, if you want to walk with children. As it isn’t a loop walk due to local circumstances, you have 2 points to start.

Before planing your walk keep the tide times and sun protection in mind. Both are necessary to have a good walking experience at this time of the year.

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Ballycotton Bay, Co. Cork – on to the beaches!

Well, at the moment Ireland is hit by “The beast from the east”.  Europe as a whole seems to be hit by that cold front, and almost everybody might have a good laugh about my headline.

Who wants to walk along the beach these days?

Nobody! (at least not voluntarily)

However, the days before this cold front were wonderful sunny and mild and they will be afterwards, too. It’s already the end of February and the first warmer days definitely will come. The weather forecast for the weekend looks already better and then you can enjoy a few hours at the beaches in Ballycotton Bay.

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