BANTRY MARKET
Organic fruit & veg, food, baking, cheese, fish, meats, olives, eggs, honey, preserves, plants, local crafts, pet supplies, bric-a-brac & collectibles. One of the larger West Cork markets, Bantry Market occupies the central town square and spills out into the adjoining roads and car parks. The regular Friday market gets even bigger on the first Friday of each month (the traditional Fair Day) when it’s not unusual to see donkeys tethered to lampposts and cages full of ducks and hens for sale. Contact – Market Manager – 086 7944419. If you’d like to set up a stall and sell at the Market – you need to provide your own table and shelter, and book your space by texting “Bantry”, your name, length of stall, type of product, and if vehicle required at stall, on Thursday afternoon before 6 PM in advance of the Friday market. www.westcorkmarkets.com
MIZEN HEAD
An award winning Maritime Museum and Heritage Attraction, this authentic all-weather experience is a must-see with its spectacular location on high cliffs with swirling Atlantic Ocean tides. From the Car park and Visitor Centre, the Signal Station is a ten minute walk along the path, down the 99 steps and across the Arched Bridge, the Mizen is famous for its wildflowers and sightings of wildlife, dolphins, whales, seals, gannets, kittiwakes, choughs – the bird migration north-south flight path is just a mile off shore. South, the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, Ireland’s Teardrop, was the last landfall seen by many emigrants to America and one of Marconi’s first telegraph stations. Mizen Signal Station had the first Radio Beacon in Ireland, 1931; the history of Safety at Sea communications is here, Wireless Signals, Racon, GPS and DGPS.
SHEEP’S HEAD PENINSULA
The Sheep’s Head Way is an 88km way-marked route that circles the whole of the Sheep’s Head from Bantry to Sheep’s Head at the end of the peninsula and back through Kilcrohane, Ahakista and Durrus. The Sheep’s Head Way is a 200km walking route located on the narrow Sheep’s Head peninsula in West Cork between Bantry Bay and Dunmanus Bay. The route also extends eastwards from Bantry to Drimoleague (www.drimoleaguewalkway.com) and Gougane Barra offering further walking opportunities in the region. The narrowness of the peninsula means that you are never far from the glorious Atlantic Ocean, even on the outward stretch when you climb to the route’s highest point, 300 metres above sea level, on the heathery Seefin ridge.